The sunlight on miles and miles of wooded hills is sublime, while across the valley the crystal waterfall catches the eye. Sitting in the living room or on the deck with that fabulous view, one is aware of the waterfall tumbling strongly, and of the rising and falling sound of the river. In summer the area is warm and sunny with Bell Birds and Tuis singing in the forests all around, though even the crisp winter air might be alive with birdsong. Surrounded by the rich foliage of the trees on a par with the deck, it's like living in a bird sanctuary. We're not posh but we are welcoming.

Barbeque in the driveway!

Cabbage palm from bedroom window

Bathroom

Hallway from front door

Deck from garage

Waipori Village consists largely of holiday homes and ‘baches’, as they are called in North Island, or “cribs” as they are called in South Island. A “bach” (short for “bachelor’s pad”) or “crib” usually describes a house that is less substantial than a residential home. Nevertheless, “Fall’s View” (no. 13 in Waipori Village) is a sturdy three-bedroom house (two double bedrooms, one twin-bedded room) with a serviceable open-plan kitchen and dining room, a sitting room (with multi-fuel stove) that overlooks the spectacular valley with the Crystal Falls in the distance.  In the spacious basement there is a washing machine and clothes dryer, with a rotunda clothesline outside. The spacious single garage also has a chest freezer.

Joanne relaxing on deck

Charles & Garrett reflecting

Garage from bottom of drive

Fireplace

Lounge overlooking the valley

There are about thirty houses in the village and of these eleven are permanently occupied by locals. The houses are set in a very tight, steep gorge, each house clinging to the side of the hill. All the houses are very similar, inside and out, and painted in various colours, including red – “Fall’s View” is a soft grey. They are not at all close together and dotted around all over the slope. “Fall’s View” is the only one with a veranda (or ‘deck’), where one can sit alfresco in beautiful solitude. One is surrounded, there, by trees of all sorts in a semi-circle round the garden below

Our driveway in winter

Joanne, who stayed in the house during February 2006, wrote the following: “On the deck I sit about 12 feet above the garden and it feels like I’m sitting in the trees, so close I can almost touch the birds flitting from branch to branch. There is an infinite variety of birdlife, insects and foliage. Sit still and you can hear way down below in the gorge the subdued roar of the river only just audible, then the invasion of birdsong, melodious and startling in its variety. The constant birdsong is what gives my ‘hide’ its unique feeling of peace. If you close your eyes you can imagine yourself in a jungle – yes, it sounds like a jungle. Now and again the cicadas sing in that high-pitched tone of theirs, creating a hazy, lazy feeling – the whole thing is tangibly soporific.  The only other sound to relieve the paradise of peace is the odd hollow plop of apples as they drop fully ripened to the garden below. You might say that there is a wonderful quality of silence here.”

Back to The House page one