Straw-bale beauty

with a French connection

A straw-bale home with a Banks Peninsula view.

French connection by Rosa Shiels

A glimpse of Akaroa Harbour is visible in the distance and native bush stretches towards the skyline, but otherwise the scene could have been transplanted from Provence. Grapevines trail up verandah poles, a vineyard stripes the adjacent hillside, and a mass of brilliant blue hydrangeas lights up a side wall. The ochre-painted straw-bale house belonging to Tim and Heidi Herbert could be the subject of a Cézanne painting.

"This is a provincial place, so it is a Provençal look. The French create houses from whatever they can find," says Austrian Heidi.

While English-born Tim and Heidi have family and friends in Europe and spend several weeks there each year, a New Zealand home keeps them close to their children and grandchildren, who are scattered throughout Australasia.

"We were looking to find a home somewhere on Banks Peninsula with some land. What was important was that it was a lovely piece of land, near the water, not too far from the city, and affordable," Tim says.

The property they found - neighbouring French Farm Winery & Restaurant - was the perfect solution after the sale of their ocean-side home in Sydney.

Originally they planned to live in and renovate the three-bedroom 1950s house at the bottom of the site, but when the straw-bale home on the hill with water views became available, the rest of the equation was taken care of.

The fact the vineyard was productive was a bonus, but, as Tim says, "it's attractive but it's also a lot of work". Valley Road Vineyards has five hectares planted with 10,000 vines producing pinot noir, pinot gris and chardonnay grapes for the D'Akaroa label, which is sold throughout New Zealand and exported to Australia.

There's work in the extensive peony garden, too, but this is leased to a businesswoman who harvests the buds for export.

Tim and Heidi have planted a herb garden and they are delighted by the property's orchard of plums, pears, apricots, apples, peaches, several varieties of citrus and olives, all of which fit into their long-term plan to be largely self-sufficient.

The house was built in 1999 by the previous owners, who "lived on site and had a vision for a natural house", Heidi says.

Self-sustaining and natural options were used wherever possible. The corrugated roofing is Onduline, a light, low-cost insulating material made from impregnated cardboard.

Underfloor heating warms the interior's flagstones.

"This is driven from a 650-litre hot-water boiler, which is, in turn, heated by four large solar panels and a massive Warmington McKenzie wood-burning stove," Tim says.

The stove has two wetbacks, which provide all the hot water the Herberts need, and there is a stockpile of wood on hand to feed the burner for years. The household waste water is processed by a soil-based Biolytix filtering septic system, which uses worms and produces compost.

The original blue and yellow interior has been transformed into a fresh, bright, open space. Heidi, whose keen eye is honed by her former professional life as a portrait and Austrian theatre photographer, has spiced up the neutral background with flashes of high-tone colour and light.

She combines disparate styles with ease. Aboriginal paintings and ethnic Asian furniture  share space with an antique refectory table and a delicate European grandfather clock; a well-worn European carpenter's bench co-exists with contemporary fixtures in the renovated kitchen. Comfortable navy-blue corduroy settees sit around the open fireplace and three second-hand pendant lights from a Christchurch junk shop illuminate the dining table.

"I came with almost nothing and found all the bits and pieces of atmosphere here. I strived to find everything in Christchurch to fit out my house.

"We re-did the kitchen, because it was all Formica, and found a wonderful carpenter in Lyttelton, Lachlan Hill, to do it for us. The bench is white CaesarStone top and there's a butler sink surrounded by wooden draining board, with a wooden plate-rack above. We bought a wooden rack for glasses, which hangs over the bench."

The shelving and all the cupboards are wooden, with a white-tiled splashback. While the look might be rustic, there are hidden high-tech elements, such as the device behind the kick-opening cupboards.

The capacious, restaurant-style larder features opaque glass doors. They have a Miele steam oven, "to eat as fresh as possible", a Longhi gas range, and a Bosch rangehood.

The main bathroom has a white stone floor, round Italian stone basins, and pink, 70mm handmade tiles from Middle Earth.

"These are absolutely beautiful," Heidi says. "I wanted shocking pink, but ended up with a muted pink, which has turned out better."

In the whitewashed master bedroom, gauzy white curtains allow flashes of blue sky to be seen from the sleigh bed.

Leading to the bedroom is a long bathroom extension for shower, dressing room and bath. There's a skylight for illumination, a modern bathtub encased with more vibrant pink tiles, a stone floor, and a toilet, screened off for privacy.

Two other bedrooms accommodate guests or grandchildren, and the adjoining hallway doubles as a portrait gallery of family photos.

One of Tim's stipulations for the property was a barn to house equipment for the vineyard, amenities for the workers, and his 5.5m timber lug-rigged yawl. The boat is part of Tim's original vision for living close to the water; he belongs to the French Farm Aquatic Club and sails in classic boat regattas around New Zealand.

The barn is a whisker off completion. An English timber-frame design, it was built by Akaroa resident Ross Miller from massive macrocarpa beams, cut and delivered from Nelson, with timber weatherboard cladding. There are three open bays for agricultural machinery, a workshop, a wine-tasting room and an upstairs office.

As the barn was built, landscaper Jonathan Hall was called in to make some sense and order out of the overgrown gully. Now, there is unfussy riparian planting around a series of rock-edged interconnecting ponds and small waterfalls, which have been set up to irrigate the vineyard. A windmill is being set up to circulate the water.

"We are trying to be as ecologically sound and sustainable as possible," Tim says.

Among the property's treasures is the garden surrounding the now-rented '50s cottage. Planted by Lou Matthews, a former tenant and market gardener who farmed proteas, the garden contains a range of exotics, including rare specimen trees. Whatever happens to the house in the long run, the Herberts are committed to maintaining this garden.

In their home, the focal point of the main living area is a French Pleyel grand piano. Stately in black, with an elegant fretwork music stand, it is the feature of many music nights for clarinetist Tim and friends of Heidi who play. From Paris, via The Piano Shop in Wellington, the piano has a grand lineage and Tim enjoys speculating that Chopin might have played it at one time. The French connection continues.