Our Wanaka Eco Stay Has A Story
From our garden to our building, through to our power sources, sustainability is at the heart of our home.
Using unique building principles, time, dedication and a whole lot of love, we're thrilled this is an adventure that we are now able to share with visitors who come to stay.
Take a read and see what makes our Wanaka Farm Eco Stay extra special...
Our Story
How Mitchella Farm Came To Be
The story of Mitchella Farm began in 1993 when, on a cold winters morning Steve was looking at sections for sale. Standing on frost covered ground he looked across the valley and saw this piece of land with very little frost and could just make out a half fallen down real estate sign.
Driving over, he walked on the land for the first time and it was ‘love at first sight’ he recalls. He approached the farmer and after many weeks of negotiation the farmer agreed to sell him the 20 acre paddock. And so Mitchella Farm was born – the only trees growing were 6 Old Man Pines.
Since then Steve and Liz have planted over 1000 trees and shrubs, the first trees were the boundary pines to give shelter from the strong north westerly lake winds.
Mitch and Ella
Steve created the driveway and ripped the ground on contour lines following permaculture principles in preparation for planting trees.
Forestry poplars and eucalyptus were planted next followed by a hazelnut orchard of over 200 White heart Hazelnut trees with pollinators for future hazelnut production.
We lined the driveway with Canadian Sugar Maples, hoping for future maple syrup! In 1997 we began our family and have 2 children , Mitchel and Ella – hence the name Mitchella Farm!
Sustainability At Every Turn
In 2001 we began building the house, initially this was going to be a barn, but we decided to change the plans slightly and have this as our home.
Our vision was always to have a homestay, retreat center and / or bed and breakfast. Steve built the house using 27 telephone poles concreted into the ground. The roof is bolted to these so we feel assured of the building's strength during strong winds and earthquakes.
Our focus in building was to be environmentally friendly where possible, sourcing supplies locally, using recycled timber and straw (for the walls) from the local farms. The rammed earth floors downstairs are made from the excavated earth and polished with beeswax from the local honey farmer. Most of the downstairs doors and windows are recycled. We furnished the house from garage sales and our local recycling centre, Wastebusters (which Steve helped create)– indoor and outdoor claw foot baths, Rimu kitchen joinery, hand basins – everything pre-loved.
A Home That Truly Tells A Story
Our story continued...
So many parts of our home tell a story - Our roof iron has the date stamp 1963, the year Steve was born. This was sourced from Sir Tim Wallis’s (local Wanaka legend) old barn and the old Queenstown Post Office. Downstairs the ranch sliders involved a trek across remote farmlands to abandoned barns, mosaic tiles came from a local potter, old bridge beams accumulated over time.
With a focus on sustainability, we continue to source things locally and where possible give items a new lease of life. There is history in so many parts of the property, which we are delighted to share with you throughout your stay.
Our children’s bedrooms are personalized with their 3 and 5 year old hand prints made in the plaster walls outside their rooms and our daughter’s bedroom even has a ‘Truth Window’ where the straw is exposed within a small frame to reveal little toy mice living there!
The house is an eclectic mix of straw bale, board and baton and double framed walls. All the beautiful inside timber door frames and window sills are the original Rimu from old spring beds and house framing timber. Steve did most of the building himself with Liz as his ‘Chippies mate’ and our 3 yr daughter as ‘Little Chip’!
The house has been designed to be warm in winter due to the thick walls with pure wool insulation and passive solar design features and is cool in summer.
Once the downstairs was mostly completed we moved in August 2003 and began landscaping. We focused on mixed natives with a cottage garden around the house. Steve built fences and the menagerie arrived two by two.
Our water comes from a spring fed stream in the mountains at the back of our property. Our waste system is a vermicomposting system – so all our wastes are digested and processed by worms and then fed into a dispersal field abundant with native trees. This is why we can only use organic products.
Our orchard has slowly grown to include peach, apricot, pear, cherry, plum and heritage apple trees.
We have always planted a large vegetable garden each year – this provides for us over summer and Liz’s preserved tomato pasta sauces, relishes and apple juice keep us going most of winter.
Our hazelnut trees produced over 400kg of hazelnuts in 2022 and this increases each year. We have hazelnuts processed into whole roasted nuts and hazelnut butter.
In 2014 Steve began to build our upstairs accommodation. To focus on this we sold our animal stock leaving the chooks and one friendly goat!
The Rimu and Matai floors came from a Poolburn Pub building and the old Riversdale Hall. The windows are new and double glazed, the door frames and window sills are all recycled Rimu with recycled local Beech stairs. Ceilings are whitewashed Macrocarpa from old Southland farm shelter trees.
In 2019 Steve restored an old cabin used by the workers of the Lake Hawea Dam in the 1950’s. This is now The Cheeky Rabbit retreat.
We do have our very friendly host and puppy dog called Beau – his greatest delight is to greet you and give you some very friendly licks!
We now have an electric car, charged by solar power as we continue to pursue an earth friendly life style.
We are delighted to be able to share our property with you and for you to experience the unique character of our solar powered home.
