Hi, I am Gary,

By now, you should have a good idea that I am passionate about the tiny native orchids on our property and the on-going conservation project that Asta and I devote most of our time to. You might also know that I have a major interest in race walking (www.profitness.net.nz) by way of coaching (runners too!) and am still keenly competitive. I hold a number of masters world records for race walking and try to keep as fit as I can when work at Te Ngahere Iti permits.

I was born in 1941 and grew up in Auckland, taking my first trip overseas when I was 18 years old when I went to Australia. After spending about six months seeing a little of the state of Victoria region, I ended up on a cattle station in Queensland for a further six months before returning to New Zealand to continue life in a rather non-eventful sort of way.

This carried on until 1964 when I ventured to Raoul Island in the Kermadec Islands group as a meteorological observer. This initially, was a short trip. About three weeks after arriving there, the whole party, plus a visiting ornithological group, had to be evacuated after the volcano erupted. Three weeks later, the powers that be decided that things were quiet enough for us to return, and so we went back and continued to do our thing as well as keeping an eye on the still-rumbling steam vents that abounded in the main central crater area. After 13 months at this address, I returned to the big smoke and spent the next year travelling around NZ as a relieving observer with the meteorological office.

Still with the met office in 1966, I decided to try the cooler climes of Campbell Island in the sub-Antarctic islands of NZ.. I spent seven months there, cooling my heels before returning home to Auckland again and within a couple of months, I married my first wife. Fairly normal family life carried on from here, with a son and a daughter to bring up until my wife passed away after 23 years of marriage.

A couple of months after my wife's passing, I was selected to represent New Zealand in the 1991 team to contest the World Race Walking Cup in San Jose, California, USA. Since then, I have had the chance to compete as a race walker in Mexico, USA (a couple of times more), Japan, and a few times in Australia. I have also been a national race walking champion and record holder in New Zealand.

After one of these trips overseas, to Mexico, I met Asta and thus began the next stage of my life which has now brought me to the place we call Te Ngahere Iti.

Cheers, I hope you will join us here. We have a lot to show you!

Hi, I am Asta

On my father's side, I am a second generation New Zealander and on my mother's side, fourth generation. I was born at Te Kopuru and lived my first 20 years in dairy country about 7 kilometres north of Dargaville.

My work with the then NZ Post and Telegraph, took me from Dargaville to Wellington. Shortly after arriving there, I took a position with the then Ministry of Works as a civil engineering technician in their Gracefield laboratories. I left that job to marry a Hamilton lad and moved to Raglan to raise a family, a son and two daughters. After the marriage breakdown, I moved to Auckland. My final employment before retiring to Te Ngahere Iti was with an Auckland based electricity retailer. It was during this period that Gary and I met, got married and eventually were in a position to purchase the right to caretake this very special piece of NZ.

My sporting interest was orienteering in which I achieved inconsistently but despite this, I loved this challenging sport. Unfortunately, there is no opportunity to participate in this sport locally. These days, I am keeping fit enough to take part in the occasional fun run and half marathon.

In my journey through life, I have always been interested in the bush. Perhaps an interest passed from my maternal grandfather who worked in the timber industry as a bushman. In my thirties, I spent several years working in a nursery that raised and sold (among other things) NZ native trees. So when we bought this property, I thought I knew all there was to know about NZ native forest. How wrong I was. I fast found that there is a lot more to the forest than the timber.

My current interests are, my garden, my grandchildren and our planet and their continuing good health.