Grand Designs: New Zealand on ABC – It doesn’t come more remote when it comes to Li and Michelle Tane’s beautiful, rugged, and lonely site, an hour – and seven river crossings – inland from Geraldine on the South Island.
Over ten years ago arborist Li and landscaper Michelle bought their site – one that practically sits amongst the clouds – and they initially camped there before building a three- by-three metre hut. For the next three and a half years they called this hut home, eventually adding a separate kitchen and rebuilding the hut using hand tools and a chainsaw due to the absence of power.
Fast forward two children, a house in Geraldine and a whole lot of stock piling of logs later, Michelle and Li are ready to build their bespoke, rammed earth, off grid, and totally sustainable mountain home.
Their modest two-bedroom home will need to accommodate the site’s extreme temperatures, and Li will make all the internal cabinetry and furniture from home milled local timber. The soil for the rammed earth will be trucked in from the Cardrona Valley, with the contractors living on site – in tents – during each stage of the build.
As Li and Michelle embark on this build, their biggest fear revolves around how the weather will treat them, however what they’re about to discover is that their formidably high standards may just be the thing that proves to be their greatest test.
Production credit: Hosted by Tom Webster. Based on the format “Grand Designs” devised by Talkback Thames, a FremantleMedia company.
Grand Designs: New Zealand on ABC and ABC iview – Thursday 4 April, 2024 at 8:30pm
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