Small is beautiful - Kokohuia Lodge

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!”
22 Lifestyle Block
Lifestyle Block 23