Let us start by stating that we weren’t looking for an olive grove. We were looking for a place where our kids could grow up enjoying the great outdoors and everything else that comes with living in the country. Think chickens, rural sunsets, the sound (and smell) of cows – that’s the life we wanted for our kids. Furthermore, both families are self employed so weren’t seriously looking at starting a new business either.

We’d kept our eye on TradeMe and looked at a few different properties, but nothing really stood out until 262b Dakins Road appeared one day. We looked at the land and the olive trees and joked about starting an olive oil company when we already had such busy lives. But the problem with a joke is there’s usually an element of truth hidden behind it, and before we knew it we had arranged with the agent to come and take a look.

After the first five minutes on the land we all knew we had fallen in love. Was it the young olive trees brimming with potential? The rows of feijoa trees promising we’d never go hungry in Summer? The myriad of citrus, apples and nuts that were scattered across the grove? We didn’t know – but we knew we wanted it.

The people selling the grove had planted the olive trees themselves. It had been in their family for a couple of generations, and until recently had been a vineyard. They graciously accepted our offer, and before we knew it we had a patch of land and more than two thousand olive trees to call our own.

Bring on the next 20+ years of learning to drive tractors, picking olives and chasing children through the trees!