Q&A

LEFT Emily, 3, leads the way across the terraces in her favourite place – the garden; the family inherited abundantly fruiting citrus trees at the end of each terrace including a lime, grapefruit and orange; Kimberley doesn’t aim for a pristine looking garden: “It’s wild so as to feed the bees and not about making it look perfect.”

RIGHT A heavy timber chair from India, featuring beautiful metal inlays, is one of a pair and a cool spot to rest in the covered portico at the entrance. BELOW RIGHT The remote four-bedroom house, built in 2013 using the light earth method (LEM), is backed by a stand of glorious native bush and looks out over terraces and paddocks; in the recent cyclone, although the house lost power, the family still had some residual electricity from solar panels and running hot water due to the wetback heating system.

OUR INTERIORS ST YLE IS: A blend of rustic, bohemian and classic French provincial.

AT THE TOP OF OUR WISH LIST FOR THE HOME IS: I have been looking everywhere for a big Turkish rug for the lounge. But it has to be the right piece, in earthy tones.

IF WE WANT TO GIVE THE CHILDREN A T R E AT: We love to head off to the Blue River Orchard in Waipapa. It’s a blueberry farm with wonderful natural yoghurt, ice cream and smoothies, open from spring to autumn.

NEXT ON THE TO-DO LIST FOR THE GARDEN: We’re going to plant wintergreens and I’d like to build a tunnel house for tomatoes to protect everything from this crazy weather.

OUR ULTIMATE DREAM: Once the children move on, we’d love to build a tiny home on a remote piece of land.