Small is beautiful - Kokohuia Lodge

Feature Natural greeN home
Small is beautiful
This luxury off-grid eco-lodge sits on the edge of the Hokianga Harbour
and is green from floor to ceiling to the clean sheets on the bed.
Who: Suzanne Duff
& Steve heim
Where: omapere, 50km
west of Kaikohe, Far North
LaND: 1ha (2.5 acres)
LoDge: 42m² home: 94m²
LiveStocK: hammer
& tongs (horses), worms,
chickens
WebSite:
www.kokohuialodge.co.nz
When Suzanne Duff and Steve
Heim bought their lifestyle
block in the hills above
Omapere on the Hokianga Habour, they
knew it would be a challenging site. There
was already a small bach sitting on the
side of the steeply sloping section but
Steve and Suzanne wanted to add an ecolodge
with a view.
“To say that the site was not an easy
one to work with was something of an
understatement,” Suzanne wrote in their
blog. “Even choosing the eventual position
and orientation of the building was fraught
with hazards: it was on a 40 degree slope
with no street access and covered in gorse
and manuka. At one point Steve was
precariously balanced up a cabbage tree
trying to figure out the best view.”
The then Auckland City-based couple
had spent one of their first holidays
together in the small seaside settlement
on the North Island’s west coast back in
2004 and enjoyed it so much they thought
they’d buy a holiday bach to share with
family and friends. In 2005 they bought
their block which included a basic bach
running on 12-volt solar electricity and
spent weekends working to make the
place more liveable.
“In the early days, Steve waged a
personal war on gorse and pampas using
nothing but a handsaw, weed whacker
and pure determination,” says Suzanne.
“We were very much Auckland dwellers
- we lived just off Ponsonby Road! - but
little by little we realised we just loved
coming here so much. I vividly remember
sitting on the grass in the young citrus
orchard we had just planted, having the
first “What if?” conversation. Gradually
that became a “Why not?” and the idea to
move up here took hold.”
“(The bach) had a pretty rudimentary
solar system and we had a composting
The lodge looks out to the sea.
The panels are to the left and
Steve and Suzanne’s home is
to the left again, just out of the
photo. The structure above is a
car deck for visitors to park on.
toilet that didn’t work particularly well
but it gave us a taste of off-grid living,”
says Steve. “The more we lived with it, the
more enthusiastic we became. We really
liked the fact we were off-grid.
“We decided it fitted in with the
natural beauty of the Hokianga so over
time we upgraded the house - it’s gone
from a very compact 72m² to a massive
94m²! - and we also upgraded the solar
system so that it allowed us to be 240
volts like a ‘normal’ house.”
The upgraded solar system was
designed to generate enough energy to
also power the then-yet-to-be-built lodge.
FeatureS
➤ Lodge design by Cameron Pollock,
www.cameronpollockstudio.com
➤ Off-grid using solar panels for power, with
generator back-up
➤ Solar evacuated tubes for hot water with gas
water heater (califont) as back-up
➤ Timber sourced from sustainably-managed
forests, mostly from Northland, finished with
eco oils (Natural House), interiors finished
with low-VOC paint
➤ Passive solar with double glazed windows
➤ Autec GreenStuf Insulation
➤ Low wattage LED lighting throughout
➤ Organic gardens & orchard
➤ 4+ Star Rating & Enviro Gold Award from
Qualmark
Suzanne with their
solar panel array.
“It’s impossible to spec a solar system to
provide 100% of your power unless you’ve
got a limitless budget,” says Steve. “We
consider it a trade-off, we weren’t wanting
to spend a zillion dollars on solar. In the
first year before the business opened we
didn’t even use half the generation (of the
panels) over our first winter.”
Steve and Suzanne had their solar
‘sparkie’ recommended to them by the
owners of another off-grid lodge.
“We went to a particular supplier
(Darren Hill of the Watt Shop in Kaeo)
and he’s been great,” says Suzanne. “He
designed us a system that is specifically
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Passive solar design is
practical and beautiful.
All the timber is finished
with natural oils.
for us and it’s a very robust system, we’ve
not had any problems.”
A new sewerage system had to be
installed to replace the composting loo
and it was also designed to cope with
both the house and the lodge. It uses
earthworms and slaters to break down
the solids, gravel filtration for both black
and grey water, then a third chamber
for further filtration. The water is then
released slowly out into a dispersion field
so it doesn’t get flooded if you pull the
plug on the bath.
Their first project was to turn the bach
into a home.
“We did the renovation on our house
about three years ago,” says Steve. “It went
from very small all the way up to small.”
The clean green nature of being offgrid
was so inspiring, Suzanne and Steve
decided they wanted to be as eco-friendly
as they could in everything they did, from
renovating their bach to the design and
build of what would become Kokohuia
Lodge, right down to the linen on the beds
and what they use to wash it with.
“We did quite a lot of research around
clean building principles and sustainable
architecture,” says Suzanne. “We learned
about passive solar, we learned about the
need for double glazing, for high spec’d
insulation, all that kind of stuff. Then we
thought ‘What is it we want to create?
What kind of look and feel do we want?’
We knew we wanted the buildings to have
a minimum impact on the environment,
to sit really lightly on the earth, both
metaphorically and literally.”
They invited an architect friend up
to stay with them so he and they could
brainstorm ideas on site, and it was one of
the keys to their success says Suzanne.
“Cam (Cameron Pollock) got the
opportunity to see and experience the
property as it already was before we
started. We sat down over dinner, had
some wine, threw ideas around between
the three of us, just work-shopped it,
playing around with possible designs and
layouts and how things would work.
“We liked the idea of something that
could rest like a leaf on the hillside
and that became the backbone for the
design of the house. The structure of
the house and structure of the roof are
modelled upon the vein structure of a
leaf and that became the central idea.
The next morning, we made some very
minor changes but the main concept was
designed that weekend.”
The lodge is small by stand-alone
building standards, but much larger than
your average hotel room, as Suzanne
points out. It’s designed as a two-person
luxury bedroom, lounge and bathroom
that feels a lot larger than it is thanks to
the deck along the front that lets visitors
almost step out into the wonderful view.
As part of their green philosophy,
Suzanne and Steve chose to use as many
locally-sourced materials as they could
and tried to make every decision based on
a product’s green credentials.
Steve with next winter’s firewood.
“All the materials are as local as
possible,” says Steve. “A lot of the timber
has come from sustainably-managed
sources in Northland, and when we
couldn’t get things locally we tried to
make sure they were New Zealand-made -
that’s not always easy to do.”
The couple hired local tradespeople
and craftsmen, led by Opononi-based
builder Richard Waldegrave. But even
their best efforts to be sustainable were
stymied somewhat by a few practicalities.
“We had to use tanalised pine for the
poles and sub-floor - you don’t have too
much option with that - but for everything
above floor level it was important for us to
use timber that hadn’t been treated.
“The internal framing is Douglas
fir which is a much hardier wood than
radiata pine and it doesn’t need to be
treated, then we used macrocarpa for
the beams, rafters and sarking, and two
different types of eucalyptus for the floor
and for the deck.”
Leftover wood was used to make
cabinets and shelving, and every piece
was put to good use.
“Even the offcuts from the building
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were used for firewood,” says Steve.
“Normally you’d have to throw it away
or use it for something else. Ours isn’t
treated so last winter a huge percentage
of what we burnt was offcuts from our
build which was really great. We wanted
to make sure we put as little material as
possible into the dump.”
The lodge being built in
the midst of a wet Far
North winter.
Another important part of the home is
its insulation, with the couple going for
the highest R-rating they could using New
Zealand-made Autex insulation which
uses recycled products in its manufacture
and can be re-used.
“What was important to us was we
didn’t want to burn a lot of fuel and the
The deck doubles the
size of the lodge.
key is insulation,” says Steve. “We overspec’d
the insulation under the floor,
in the wall cavities and in the ceiling…
in winter the lodge requires almost no
heating. We’ve got a very efficient (flued)
Rinnai eco gas heater but you only need to
turn it on for a few minutes and then you
can turn it off again.”
All the timber used has been treated
with natural oils, lovingly painted on by
hand by the couple.
“It’s a bit like painting the harbour
bridge though,” says Suzanne. “By
the time you’ve finished you have to
start again. It’s a lot of ongoing work
maintaining the building and redoing the
oiling to keep it looking lovely.”
“I’m going to be oiling for the rest of my
life,” says Steve. “I’m in the oil business.”
But he’s also now in the luxury ecolodge
business and they have already
hosted quite a few guests.
“It’s been interesting. The eco-friendly
sustainable aspect is really important to
us and we thought it would be the major
factor in people booking, but most people
have actually booked it for a romantic
getaway. The sustainable part is important
but they see it in conjunction with its
romantic appeal.”
The original plan was for two lodges
to sit on the hill but Suzanne and Steve
decided to stick with just the one.
“It’s a very private and unique
experience for people,” says Suzanne. “We
played with the idea of two units because
of economies of scale but we realised
what’s so special about this place is the
isolation and the privacy, and if we put
two units on it we were actually going to
compromise the very essence of what we
wanted people to experience.”
There’s a lot more work to be done on
the block itself. Steve is still fighting the
war against pampas grass but now there
are hundreds of native trees growing in
the places where he has beaten it.
“We’ve planted a lot of natives -
hundreds - and we’ve got regenerating
manuka, cabbage trees, the odd
pittosporum… we’ve planted a lot of
juvenile kauri, and we’ve become involved
with the local nursery that is part of
Project Crimson so we’ve planted a lot
of pohutukawa all the way along the
roadside verge.
“The pohutukawa replaced the massive
pampas that I cut down rather than
poisoning it; it was a labour of love!”
The block also has an orchard full
of heritage fruit trees sourced from
the Koanga Institute collection. The
collection features old fruit trees planted
by the region’s European settlers over
120 years ago so there are some very
special specimens that the couple have
planted including a Hokianga peach and a
Hokianga apple.
They are now learning more about
permaculture design and increasing
the space for gardens, creating raised
beds using seaweed, comfrey and horse
manure so they can be more selfsufficient
says Suzanne.
“Obviously we want to feed ourselves,
but it’s important to us to feed the guests
with food we’ve grown organically on the
property.”
off-grid specs
The house and the lodge share a solar
system that includes:
➤ 8 x 175 watt solar panels
➤ 8 x SSR 450amp/hr batteries,
48-volt system
➤ Outback FX2348 inverter
➤ Outback FM60 regulator
It wasn’t ideal to put the panels on the roof
of the house so they sit in a clearing in the
bush midway between the lodge and the
main house on a ground-mounted frame.
“We went for a 48-volt system because
they’re reputedly more robust and more
efficient, and the inverter doesn’t have as
much work to do,” says Suzanne. “We have
approximately four days storage, but we’ve
never put it to the test.
“Our batteries were a big investment and
it is really important that we look after them;
if our battery charge drops below 70% we
use the generator to top up but this doesn’t
happen very often.”
Steve and Suzanne always knew they
wanted to be off-grid but did find out the
comparitive cost of going on-grid.
“The local power supplier gave us a quote
of $42,000,” says Steve. “We bought our whole
system for far less than that.
“We’ve got a very robust system that
provides all our needs and those of the lodge.
We don’t tell guests to be frugal, but we educate
them about it briefly and they don’t feel they’re
being constrained by being off-grid.”
off-grid extras
“When we first moved up here we had
a gas fridge, like the sort you’d have in a
caravan or a boat,” says Suzanne. “Funnily
enough, it was brilliant - a gas fridge is
completely silent and that was actually
quite nice. We replaced it with a low power
fridge which we had to get from a specialist
retailer. The very, very efficient ones tend
to be ones that are like a chest freezer - you
can run them as a fridge or a freezer - but
we wanted one that we could integrate into
our kitchen like an ordinary fridge so we
got a Gram which is a pretty super-efficient
fridge/freezer.”
Living off-grid has meant subtle
changes to the way they live, but nothing
that bothers them says Steve.
“A lot of people think to live in an
environmentally sustainable off-grid
house you have to suffer but the reality
is you can create a luxury place in a very
sustainable manner with minimal impact
on the environment.”
The practical aspects also become
second nature says Suzanne.
“It’s funny. You do make adaptations,
for instance you get into the habit of
thinking about what you want out of the
fridge before you open the door, then
you get it out and close the door quickly,
whereas people back in the city open it
first, then leave the door open while they
take it to the bench. It’s just about doing
things in a different way.”
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Suzanne with a Project Crimson
pohutukawa on their block.
One thing that has remained the same
is the washing machine.
“We do have an ‘ordinary’ washing
machine,” says Suzanne. “With the
fridge we had no choice - we had to run
a reasonably-sized fridge so we had to
invest in that. When we moved up here
we could have replaced our washing
machine with a new, more efficient
one that would no doubt save us on
power, but getting rid of old appliances
to buy new ones is also a question of
sustainability and how you make the
transition efficiently so we’re still running
our old washing machine and when it
finally bites the dust we will replace it.
“You learn tricks too. If you’re going to
do a load of washing, you do it on a day
when there is a good weather forecast,
or when we charge the batteries with the
generator we do a load at the same time.
Little things like that were a big learning
curve for us.”
Steve says they looked at using other
forms of alternative power generation
including wind turbines but solar proved
to be the best bet.
“Ideally you wouldn’t run a house on
solar alone as in winter time you’re going
to have less generation. The ideal system
is a hybrid system where you’d have solar
generation and either wind or a micro
hydro system. Ideally we’d love a micro
hydro alongside what we have but we don’t
have a stream. It’s kind-of frustrating as
being on clay we have an awful lot of water
(running down the block) but you can’t use
that unfortunately.
“We explored the possibility of wind
generation but the wind turbines for
domestic use are either very expensive
or they’re noisy. Also, we get too much
turbulent wind which is the wrong kind of
wind, so solar is our only viable option.”
Economics were also a factor in the
couple choosing to have a battery bank
rather than being ‘grid-tied’ where excess
power is fed into the grid and paid for by
the electricity company.
“Batteries at this point are not exactly
the most sustainable things,” says Steve.
“Some people are in the position to be
able to (be grid-tied) but we didn’t have
Hammer (back) and Tongs.
that option from a financial point of view,
it was just too much to do both.”
Hot water is provided by an evacuated
tube solar system that has a gas califont
back-up. The only problem they’ve had is
too much hot water says Suzanne.
“It’s really clever. The heated water is
stored in a cylinder, you turn a tap on and
the water flows through the califont. If it’s
hot enough, the califont doesn’t kick in
and we don’t use any gas. If it’s not quite
hot enough it will bring the water up from
warm to hot.
“In summer, we had the solar system
without the califont (before it was
connected) and we had oodles of hot water -
I was more concerned about it overheating.”
Even in winter, their solar system is so
good at heating the water, Steve says they’re
still on their first 12kg tank of gas as the
back-up system has hardly been needed.
The hot water system was also designed
to be as simple as possible, reducing the
initial cost and meaning there are no
moving parts to maintain or replace.
“Pumps are the enemy when it comes
to living off grid,” says Steve. “We had
people say ‘a solar hot water system
without a pump can’t be done’, but we were
determined to be able to configure a system
that used thermo-syphoning (convection)
alone. We managed to achieve it which was
just great and really satisfying.”
Steve & Suzanne
on downsizing
“We were effectively living in the
heart of a big city so (moving
here) is almost as big a change
as you can do. We didn’t just
move to the country, we moved
to a remote part of the country.
We’re glad we did it, it has been a
fundamental change in our lives.”
Steve
“When Suzanne and I first met
we each had our own houses and
stuff so when she moved in with
me, two houses become one. Then
we went from being in a villa to
a small house so we downsized
again. We gave a lot of it away
and that in itself was a really good
experience, just decluttering and
seeing that important ‘things’ aren’t necessarily important.”
Steve
Heritage fruit trees
in the orchard.
“We had so much stuff. To downsize has been a really cathartic process, to get rid of
all the junk.”
Suzanne
“We used to go to sleep at night to the sound of buses and trucks and people walking
back from the local bars. That’s been replaced with the sound of moreporks!”
Steve
What not to do when you’re building
Building on such a steep site, Suzanne and Steve were keen to make sure all the
work was done over summer. Unfortunately, the council had other ideas.
“The property is pretty steep, and then there’s a flat area at the bottom of the
property where the horses graze,” says Suzanne. “The steepness of the site was the
biggest challenge. If we’d been able to build in summer like we’d planned, it would
have been easier and quicker.”
However, delays with getting the plans approved meant building didn’t start
until March 2011 and that caused huge problems says Steve.
“When you’re building on a steep site which is Hokianga clay you spend a lot of
time slipping and sliding around with building materials.”
The large double-glazed windows had to be carried in by hand down that slippery
slope, but their builder came up with a clever plan for moving the large 200kg stone
bath tub down to the lodge. It sat on a bespoke wooden sled for the trip.
Then during a huge storm at Queen’s Birthday weekend, disaster struck,
shocking everyone says Steve.
“We’re quite exposed to the nor-easter and it blew the back wall completely
off. It was unbelievable: the whole back wall was lying on the ground like a piece
of film scenery. It was a heart in mouth moment. Our builder Richard looked like
he’d seen a ghost, it was pretty horrendous.”
But the scary moments didn’t end there, says Suzanne.
“There is a lot of glass around the front so we needed structural steel for extra
strength. The plan was to move it down the hillside using a 12-tonne digger and
he’d just started going down the hill – the house was about two-thirds built below
him – when the digger started to slide. He was as cool as a cucumber: he dug in
the bucket to stop the slide, all without missing a beat, then said ‘I’m just going to
make a phone call’.
“So then a short time later there was a second 12-tonner digger at the top of the
hill, pulling out the first!”
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