ABOUT ME

I love the simple life. I live on a 1.5 hectare 50/50 bush/pasture block in Hunua, South Auckland. Basically if you know where the 'Bombays' are and you've traveled from Auckland city on the motorway heading south you've passed the 'Hunuas'.  The Hunua Ranges are far superior in size to the Bombay Hills, about 250 square kilometres in total and a huge chunk of them are dedicated parkland, they just don't have a motorway going over them so I can understand why you blinked and missed them. Hunua Falls might be our most famous landmark, it earns a spot on the news every time some idiot ignores the warning signs and jumps off the top of the falls for shits and giggles and meets a rocky & watery demise. Sadly some people jump off with the intention of meeting their maker, such a beautiful place with some very troubled souls departing this earth from it.

My connection with Hunua began when I was 14 years old, I went to the Presbyterian camp up the road from the falls for a Pony Club Camp. As we drove into the area I thought to myself, I'll live here one day, in a log cabin in the bush. For a week I enjoyed bush walks, rides through bush and farmland, swimming with my horse in the stream and enjoying the tranquility. Two years later I purchased my first car and in the weekends I'd drive to the falls for some quiet time and I'd sit in the long grass listening to the falls and I'd dream. I've always been a day-dreamer, since I was a kid, so locked into my thoughts that I'd hear someone talking to me, but I'd prefer to stay in my imaginary world.


My parents named me Heidi after the book by Swiss writer Johanna Spyri. Here's Heidi according to Wikipedia. It is somewhat ironic that, like the character Heidi, I now live in the hills with goats. Although my hills are in Hunua not the Swiss Alps.
 It took one house purchase, renovation and sale in the suburbs to get here but on the 1st December 2006 my teenage dream became a reality, I purchased my slice of heaven complete with a cabin, not a log cabin but a cabin none the less! For the last 6 years I've been living in my little cabin in the bush without TV or cellphone reception, with a bathroom that is detached from the house (but a lovely little bush walk to get to it!) drinking possum-poo-infused tank water with my fur, feather and bristle family and more recently my fiance Sam who has moved in to the neighboring cabin.

There have been ups and downs and lots of learning experiences but I wouldn't change a thing. I love living here and I feel very honored to be the guardian of such an amazing place and family of two and four-legged friends. 

Land: 1.5259 Hectares (3.77 acres) plus an additional 2.0562 Hectares (5.08 acres) up the road which I often refer to as 'the new property' or by its name 'El Ranchero'.
Dwellings: 2 x 35smq (approx) ply & batten cabins with coloursteel roofing

Water Supply: 13,500 litre (3,000 gallon) Water Tank

Location: Hunua Ranges, South Auckland, New Zealand

Weather: http://www.metservice.com/towns-cities/auckland/hunua
See the OCCUPANTS page to meet the family.