Tree house of dreams

When Cyclone Bola hit Coromandel in 1988, it blew over a pohutukawa on a hillside at Kuaotunu. 20 years later, John Buchan and his wife Wendy built a two-storey house whose upper decks are nestled amongst the foliage

By Bachchat Staff

When Cyclone Bola hit Coromandel in 1988, it blew over a pohutukawa on a hillside at Kuaotunu. The tree continued to grow along the ground, and 20 years later, John Buchan and his wife Wendy built a two-storey house whose upper decks are nestled amongst the tree’s foliage. It’s a big tree – its trunk is 1.6 metres in diameter – and when you’re on the top deck, it’s like being in a tree house, John says, surrounded by tui and bellbirds.

The house was a long time in the planning for the couple.  Everything starts with a dream, according to John and the sequence of how theirs unfolded was almost unbelievable. He recalls surfing at the beach when he was a teenager, and looking back up the hillside and saying to the friend he was with, “One day I’d like to own a piece of land up there.”

“And then I forgot about it and maybe 18 years later I was at the beach helping out a guy I’d got to know on a small building project and he said, ‘Would you ever like to live in this area?’ I said yes, and he said, ‘Whereabouts?’ I described the hillside and he said ‘Really? I know the guy that owns that and he’s going to sell it but not put it on the market. Let’s go down and see him.’”

So John went to see the owner, who sold him the half acre property. That was back in 1989.

John, a builder, and Wendy started looking at different concepts and by the time they were on their third plan they were ready to build. They wanted an eco-friendly house, but the cost was challenging, so they decided they would start with a good, basic design structure and add different aspects of eco technology into the equation as prices fell. So a heat pump is on the list now, but in the meantime, the concrete floor stores heat, and the sunny, sheltered north facing aspect means the house is always warm – with a gas heater on hand for guests who need extra heat.

They found a designer, Dave Bryant, who John says was able to interpret their aspirations and together, built a house that uses simple but effective systems that offer comfort but also a good, basic design structure and choice of materials. They used wood containing natural preservatives; the decking wood, for example, has a natural anti-fungicide: “If you’re lying on the deck you’re not lying on anything that’s toxic”, John says.

They installed polyester installation in the roof spaces, rather than fibre glass, and a grey water treatment system, chosen for its low nitrate and phosphate output. Water into the house is gravity fed, and they opted for a low-pressure hot water system to reduce water use.

Outside, as well as the giant pohutukawa, there’s a growing garden of fruit trees including 16 varieties of citrus, persimmons and feijoas plus a small vegetable garden. They have a long way to go still in the garden, John says, but what they have now he describes as a little sub-tropical paradise, with sea views to the north and mountain views to the east.

Some day the family will move from their Auckland base to make Pohutukawa Lodge their permanent home. And a second cottage on the property is in planning mode now, one that will be completely off-grid.

As John says, “You’ve got to have a ‘what next’, don’t you?”

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Pohutukawa Lodge