How many times have you gone on holiday to a beautiful, remote place like this and thought, 'I'd love to build a house here'? But the reality is that building in a location like this is extremely challenging. In fact, it's something that only the bravest ` or perhaps the most foolhardy ` amongst us would take on. Whatever your grand plans are, we'll help get you home. ANZ ` proud sponsors of Three's Grand Designs New Zealand. Captions by Michaela Cornelius. Edited by Tracey Dawson. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2018 (GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC) (BIRDS CHIRP) For nearly 20 years, psychologist Kate Betteley and painter Ian Hamlin have split their time between busy, professional lives in Wellington and a remote property in the Marlborough Sounds, where they completely unwind. KATE: I think the stillness, for me. I love the... It sort of seeps into you over time. (BIRDS CHIRP) There's a` I mean, you just listen to the bellbirds, and you become really in tune with the, sort of, natural rhythm. They first came to the sounds hunting for somewhere to plant a native forest ` a dream of Ian's since his youth growing up on the South Island West Coast. That's where he started painting and one day had a revelation. I was just blown away by the majesty of the mountains, and I could see how the forest had been cut down and milled, and I determined then ` one day I was gonna buy some land and put the forest back. In the summer of 1999, they finally found what they were looking for at the head of Kenepuru Sound ` an ideal place to plant their trees. We were getting married at the time, and then quite soon afterwards we found out that we couldn't have children, so it became even more important. It was like the trees became my babies, you know, and... the creativity, really, that the two of us had wanted to give to the world by having a child was actually then something that we could really pour into the land, couldn't we? Yeah. Over time the couple built two small kitset dwellings, a composting toilet, an outdoor shower and a Mongolian yurt. With these pretty basic facilities and solar power, the couple spent many happy summer holidays. We've had 20 years without a generator or anything. There was no backup. Like, if it went dead, it went dead. Every time we came back, we kept thinking, 'It's actually quite nice just living here like this.' But it was never practical for Ian and Kate to live in the sounds permanently until the arrival of broadband. Now Ian could sell his paintings online, and Kate could Skype her clients. So, early in 2017 they sold their Wellington house and moved here full-time and started thinking about what sort of house they'd like to build. When I first met Ian and Kate, they'd been living here several months through their first winter. They decided the site for their new house would be just up the hill from their existing buildings. Hi, guys. Gosh, what a marvellous spot. Gidday, dog. Hello. Yeah, yeah. Welcome to paradise. Wow. Yeah. Oh my goodness. How on earth did you come across a site like this? We never, either of us, had been out here. We parked up at the campsite across the road, and there was a 'for sale' sign, and it was 90,000 plus a couple of paintings. No way. (CHUCKLES) And, uh, yeah. Oh my goodness. This amazing site deserves an ingenious design, and for that the couple have gone to well-known Wellington architect Hugh Tennent. We said everything is round. Our little cabins are round. We've got a yurt that's round. And we just love` The site suits the roundness with the 180-degree view. And he said round's too expensive. So he came up with this idea of using rectangles but arranging them in a curve so that we can get the full expanse of the ridge and the sun and the views. Just a whole series of straights that come together as a round. Yeah, he talked about it ` and I like this ` sort of alighting on the hill, you know, like a spaceship coming to ground, you know, so it's not impacting hugely on this environment, which is what we want to do as well, isn't it? Yeah. This pod house is made from a series of wooden portal frames which sit on simple foundations. The main house has five of these pods connected in a chain on the crest of a hill. Concrete wedges gently fan the pods out so that each has a slightly different view. Floor-to-ceiling windows take full advantage of the spectacular outlook and all-day sun. Pod one is the master bedroom. Next is the bathroom and Kate's office. Then the laundry and the kitchen. Pods four and five combine in an open-plan living area and out to the barbecue terrace. Internal walls are kept to a minimum, allowing a viewing corridor running right through the house down to Kenepuru Sound. The last pod, just above and behind the main house, is for guest accommodation. And, really, who wouldn't want to stay in this beautiful, sustainable pod house sitting so very lightly on the land? He designed it so that they could fit on the back of a truck and be craned on to site. So the truck has to get up here somehow? The truck has gotta get up the hill. So all of that is happening right here? Yeah. Mm-hm, right where we're standing. We're actually standing literally on the building platform? Yeah. We are, yeah. Tomorrow they're gonna come and dig the piles, ready to` for each pod to be plopped on the top. ...to be plopped on. What, and the next day you move in? That's it. Well, that's what Kate thinks. That's what I want. (LAUGHTER) So, what is your budget? Oh, well, it's 725,000 was our budget, wasn't it? And not a cent more? And not a cent more. Oh my goodness. And there's no contingency ` No. (CHUCKLES) But we know` no chance for blowouts? No, no. No. It'll all come in right, you know. Yeah. I love that confidence. (LAUGHTER) I love the pod house design. It's so simple and elegant. The difficulty here is the steep site and the remote location. The nearest town is about two hours by road, and its labour force would no doubt think twice about the long and expensive commute. This is something architect Hugh Tennent has faced before with other builds in the sounds, and I'm keen to see what solutions he's discovered. We land at a house Hugh designed in Miro Bay on nearby Pelorus sound. No roads here at all ` so tradespeople would spend all day just getting here and home again. The only practical solution was to build as much of the house as possible somewhere else. What was prefabricated was the foundations and the floor panels... OK. ...and the portals ` so the structure inside to hold up the roofs. For this house, the prefabricated components were brought out by barge. But at another Hugh Tennent design, nearby Turn Point, the only option was much more expensive. Turn Point was even more difficult to access, so it was all about helicoptering. The process there was to try and build the buildings elsewhere more in their entirety. And the final thing to do was to get the largest helicopter in New Zealand and lift those and put them on top of these steel structures. All in one go? Yeah, without the glass. Wow, that's audacious. The glass is very heavy. So there's been a lot of learning from the first one you did, this one, that you can then bring to Ian and Kate's. Yeah, so for Kate and Ian's ` they have a road to their place, but it's a long distance, again, to bring men. You'd have people sitting in their vans four, five hours a day ` very expensive. So what we decided to do there was prefabricate, sort of, a necklace of pods, truck them out and crane them on to some very minimal foundations. They'll come out as finished as possible. OK. Ian and Kate got a quantity surveyor's report that said building the pods off-site could save $100,000. For it all to work, though, the right builder is critical, and Hugh's recommended a guy he's worked with here before ` David Kepes. The idea is for the pods to be built in David's workshop and then trucked one and a half hours on a narrow, winding road to Ian and Kate's place. Come on in, guys. Hi, David. What have you got for us? I've got a wee surprise for you here. Wow. Look at this. Oh my God. Good to see you. This looks great. Wow. Hey, brother. Good to see you. David's gone to a lot of trouble so that we can understand the intricacies of the design. He's made a 1:10 scale model. Here we go, guys. Come and have a wander around your` your house. Wow. This looks amazing, David. It looks like a spaceship. It's beautiful. Yeah, I think Hugh's done an amazing job. And this is the view you get as you come up the hill to approach it, and it's stunning. It's` I mean, especially with the slope, it's gonna have that sense of just gently alighting on the hill. Come and have a look through here, Ian. Look how it curves around the hill. It's amazing. Oh yeah. Isn't it beautiful? Wow. It's almost a shame to put any internal walls in, David. In fact, the portal frames don't have to be braced by walls because the joints are engineered to hold them together. These joints here take all of the potential movement out of the building in this direction, and what it does is it allows us to open... all of this area without having any sheet bracing ` so any wall. The thing that I find so wonderful about a model like this is that you can really feel the space. Not just the physical materials of the timber ` you can also see the space, the structure and light as a material. It reminds me immediately of people like Brunelleschi when he was making models in order to understand how to build the dome for the Florence Cathedral. It's wonderful. It's something we need to do more. No question the pods are beautifully designed, but David has to build them strong enough to survive being craned on and off trucks and being transported to site on a long, difficult road. The whole thing is fraught with danger, but Ian is surprisingly upbeat. When Hugh first suggested that we do it in pods and bring it out, I just loved the idea, the wildness of it, that it was something different and a creative solution to being in a remote place. It's got its risks. It's gonna be exciting, that's for sure. On the pod house site, there's a sudden burst of activity. David and Ian are hard at work setting out the foundations. This is really exciting. It feels like we're seeing something really happen. This is the bedroom here. So, uh, when you wake up in the morning, you're gonna look straight out into the heads and see the sun on the water through there. From the bedroom you can look right down the hallway and out to this view that way as well. So, the pod house project is getting real now. The pods are under construction, and work has begun on-site. Of course, at this stage the pods and the site are a very long way apart, and in between is a very dodgy road. This beautifully sums up every worry that I have about this project. The opportunity for things to go drastically wrong is huge. This is just one of many slips. We're not even in winter yet, and it's just around the corner. The thing that concerns me most, though, is there's no contingency, so what on earth are they gonna do when things go wrong? (GENTLE PIANO MUSIC) At his workshop, David is crafting an example of the joint he's using as an important functional and aesthetic detail in the pods. What we're gonna start doing today is forming the connection at the top corners of our portal frames ` what I call a piwakawaka joint. All right. Yeah, yeah. The piwakawaka joint, named in honour of our beautiful fantail, is more traditionally known as a dovetail joint. It's a David Kepes speciality and something that Ian really appreciates. It's very important that it's handbuilt and handcrafted. That is, kind of, our ethos for the whole place. I can't imagine us buying things off the rack. And this handcrafted piece just feels symbolic of the whole process. So, what we're gonna do now is we're gonna attack our handcrafted joint with a sledgehammer. All is revealed. That's great, isn't it? Visually, it's got a nice look to it. Spoken by an artist. Yeah, exactly. It's important. David Kepes is also an artist, and his medium is wood, and he's put the piwakawaka joint to very good use in the house he's built for his own family. This is incredible, David. I can't believe it. I mean, the sweep of this roof is exquisite... and the concrete wall and then this beautiful piece of joinery. A fairly indulgent use of timber, you'd have to say. (CHUCKLING) There's a massive discipline here and an extraordinary feel for materials and how they come together. I mean, it's everywhere, but the way that you're jointing corners and then locking them in ` it is beautiful and extremely finely worked. Thanks, Chris. I'm so impressed with David ` a real craftsman and such a hard worker. With him in the driver's seat, the pods are quickly taking shape. David knows the good weather can't last, and before it breaks he has to get the pods finished and safely to Ian and Kate's site. With her work as a psychologist, Kate is away from the Marlborough Sounds on a regular basis seeing clients in Wellington. ...your life, really ` how you are. With the pod house project moving up a gear, it's maybe not the best time to be away from home. However, Kate is completely confident in the team on the job. I keep waiting (LAUGHS) to get really stressed about it all, but it's fun. I'm enjoying it. I think Ian gets a little bit more obsessive about things than I do. I think that's the artist in him. He's doing a lot of the work with David. I think he's having fun. Lift up that plank that's in front of you. This one? Yeah, and I want you to put that on top of the paper here. (METAL CLANGS) I don't think David's got a lot of faith in me just yet, but to come out here and be part of it is really` It feels like this is` I'm taking ownership of my house now. It feels really great. Ian hasn't quite given up on his job as a painter, and a gallery in Blenheim is putting on an exhibition of his work. This is my show. Wow. You've been busy. I have. Yeah. But not quite so much of late. Mostly I've been building the house with David. Wow. This one catches my eye. This is extraordinary. What is this? This is one that I've been playing with ` with just painting light. I mean, mostly I've been` This exhibition's called 'Chasing the Light', and that's kinda what I paint, and, uh, I was playing. I went from this one here ` the Woodpecker Bay one where I was painting light in the landscape. It's my favourite place. I love that. And then I thought how would it evolve just to paint light without any subject ` just to paint light itself, which is quite a hard thing. Ian loves to see people responding to his paintings, but he also wants to see them reaching for their wallets. Ian and Kate have no contingency for cost overruns for the build, but I believe they'll need one, and these paintings need to sell. (ENCHANTING MUSIC) It's a big day on-site. The piles for the pod house are placed in position, ready to be cemented in. The guys hope the concrete truck can get all the way up the steep driveway, like the trucks carrying the pods will also have to do. You've gotta get up there. So it's the first real test of the driveway, and the rain's not helping. We've had a bit of rain in the last week, and it's a bit greasy. This will be a good test to see how we can get up the hill in the trucks with the pods. You reckon you can get up ` right up? We'll have a go. Give it a go? No worries. (TENSE MUSIC) Stay there. Hold on, there. This is the bottom of the drive, not even the steep part, and the truck's getting nowhere. Dave dumps a load of gravel to try and provide some traction. This time, with the gravel and a good run-up, things are looking promising. (CREAKING AND CRUNCHING) Oh dear. It's not looking good, is it? That was a good go, but I think you might wanna just stay here. They have got a plan B, but that's not without its own problems. We've gotta do multiple loads in the Bobcat, which is making it worse in a way, cos the Bobcat chews up the ground something terrible, but it's our only way of doing it. David's Bobcat can only move a small amount at a time, so they have to work as quickly as possible before the concrete in the truck sets. (TENSE MUSIC) As Ian feared, the Bobcat is really cutting the driveway up in places. This is not good, especially given the trucks with the pods have to get up the same driveway sometime soon. Ian lays down some brush on the drive to try and stop any more damage. (EXHALES HEAVILY) So, I feel pretty exhausted right now. It's been pretty intense. It's full on. It looks like we've got the concrete in the holes. As the first real test of the driveway, this has got to be a fail. One concrete truck didn't get up. Next time there'll be six trucks with six pods that have to all get up ` right up ` and if there's rain again for the move, it could be disastrous. (ENCHANTING MUSIC) The good news, though, is that the pods at David's workshop are almost finished. What we've got in here are the completed door and window frames. This one here ` I'll show you ` is a window frame that's going into the south wall. You know, for me, being here in the workshop it's just a real joy seeing a trailer load of rough-sawn timber arrive,... Yeah. ...and then a few days later I'll see something like this. It's like a work of art, David. The window or me? Well, both. Oh, all right. So, should we ask your husband to paint me? If you could sit still for a moment. That could be a problem. (CHUCKLING) Jokes aside, David has something serious to discuss with Ian and Kate. He wants to bring moving the pods to site forward. I'm very mindful that we're running out of dry, settled weather, and I think your access track is extremely sensitive to moisture. Mm-hm. If we're gonna have any chance of getting these trucks up your track, we really need to be doing it... ...sooner rather than later. Yeah. But that means the pods will leave here not as finished as planned, so more work on-site and potentially more money. We've made the decision not to put the cladding on until we get these buildings out to site. If it means that we work in coats on-site, that's a heck of a lot better than losing a building as it slides off the trucks. So, we've had a bit of a wake-up call this week. The problem we've struck is access to site. His track ` it's a bush track. There's areas of that track that are totally shaded by forest, and they just don't dry out. We've gotta somehow get a 20-ton crane,... a Hiab and multiple trucks with these pods on board up that access track. If it rains, (GRUNTS) are we gonna get it up the track ` all these pods? I can't even bear to think what might happen with that, so I'm not going there. (CHUCKLES) (BROODING PIANO MUSIC) It's the last of the golden weather in the Marlborough Sounds. Ian and Kate's simple dwellings were designed for summer holidays, but now they're living here permanently and have already been through one wet, cold winter. They're very keen to move into their new pod house before the next one. It's the end of the summer, so everyone's gone home. All our neighbours ` they've all gone, so we're kind of on our own here now for the next six months. What's for lunch, Ian? Just sandwiches today. (BOTH CHUCKLE) The impending change of seasons has caused builder David Kepes to bring moving the pods forward from his workshop 50km away. What's the worst that can happen? They won't be able to get them here, so they'll sit in David's workshop, I suppose. Probably the worst would be to have to go through the winter again with an outside toilet and outside shower. It's not great through the winter, but it can be done. We've done it once, so it can be done again, but I'd like not to. (CHUCKLES) I'm definitely nervous about the pods coming. As it's got closer and we've seen what getting a heavy truck out here is like, how steep the drive is ` yeah, it's gonna be interesting. (UPLIFTING PIANO MUSIC) Early May before dawn at David's workshop. The weather's been fine for the last few days and is forecast to continue. It better. Moving the pods is costing Ian and Kate $2000 an hour, and they've decided they can't afford something that I would've thought is essential. Probably the biggest issue I've got at the moment is that the clients have opted not to insure these buildings during the transit stage. It heightens their risk, and more onerous on us to make sure that everything goes smoothly. Right there! Go down! Yep. (TENSE MUSIC) Loading the pods is critical. Any tiny miscalculation could have dire consequences when they're on the road. 250. Uh, 230. Just measured the building so we get it even both sides on the trailer. It's just they've gotta be right, and just getting it central so the weight's in the middle of the truck. The team constantly checks the loads are sitting correctly. They're not happy with the bearer underneath the pod on one trailer, so they quickly replace it with another. Yep, that'll do. Kate's missing the move. She's in Wellington working. Alone on-site, Ian waits nervously. It's a classic calm, still sounds day. There's an air of expectancy. It kind of feels a bit surreal. We're just sitting there having coffee and waiting now. Kate's arriving tonight. She's a bit sad to be missing the arrival. She'll be excited to see them here. At David's workshop, there's a problem with the final pod. It's too heavy, and the trailer is too far away for the Hiab crane to swing it over. They've ended up having to take the pod back round the back of the truck. The Hiab can't quite get all the way round to drop it on to the trailer unit. We've got extra timber in here,... Uh-huh. ...which is very heavy. And this is a smaller crane than what I've got on the back of my truck. So it can't quite lift it to the right`? No, it can't get it on to the trailer there yet. Right. They have to move the trailer closer to the crane, but it's too narrow here to get a truck in to back it up. We've got a bit of a challenge, and we like a challenge. Yeah. (CHUCKLES) What could possibly go wrong on a Friday? (LAUGHTER) Yeah, so what are you actually thinking? David has to think fast. He thinks outside the square. In fact, he thinks outside the century. Now we've just pulled out the mid-century Nuffield 4/44. Let's try it with the old Nuffield, as she hasn't got power steering. The old Nuffield, which has probably been sitting out on the paddock for years, has been brought to the rescue. It's all very high-tech (!) If you look at the connection here ` just a very makeshift bolt thrown in. (LAUGHS) David is a man of many talents. He executes a perfect 20-point turn to manoeuvre the trailer in reach of the crane. Perfect! I love it. Happy there, bud? (MEN SHOUT) Beautiful. Whoo-hoo! With all six pods now loaded, Warren runs through a final briefing before the convoy sets off. You should all have one of those. The road's not a highway. It's got some very big bumps and hollows in it, and if you get that wrong, it won't be pretty. You'd fall over. You'd lose it. Convoy has started. We're on the road. The convoy starts so well,... but then something's wrong. We're only 10 minutes in. We've still got at least another hour and a half, two hours to go, and already some of the pods are starting to move. It seems like there wasn't enough cross-bracing with all the strops and so on, and it's the last place where they can all pull over safely together and check everything. It's a good start (!) (CHUCKLES) David's riding shotgun on the convoy to help ensure the precious cargo gets to site in one piece. So, the good thing is we've got the widest pod on the first truck, so if anyone's gonna have a problem, it'll be him. RT: I think we've got a branch here. We've got a problem. They've previously done a run down the road, checking for low branches but seem to have missed a few. They can't risk hitting them, because the pods could well be damaged. (BRANCH CREAKS) You wouldn't be the Grim Reaper by any chance? (LAUGHS) The Grim Reaper. Right. Are we all good? Yeah, nah, that's good. I'm happy with that. You know, we're probably a little bit behind schedule. It's taken us a wee bit longer than anticipated to get up the road, but, look... At the end of the day, if we can get two of these pods into place by... sunset tonight, I'll be happy. RT: Are we there yet? RT: We're 17 K down of a 44 K trip. RT: Be there by midnight. (CHUCKLES) # The wheels on the truck go round and round, round and round` (INAUDIBLE RESPONSE) # The horn on the truck goes... # (HORN BEEPS RHYTHMICALLY) (LAUGHS) Meanwhile, the crane that will lift the pods off the trucks and on to the foundations has been on the road three hours from Nelson. The crane is the first heavy vehicle to attempt the driveway since the concrete truck failed. There's been no recent rain, so it's not as slippery as before, and extra gravel has been added, but this time failure is not an option. He's rockin' it. It's sweet as. He did it like that was a Sunday afternoon drive. The driveway has passed its first test. But the convoy has stopped again. (GROANS) RT: Oh dear. Warren's wife, Irina, is driving the pilot vehicle, and it's stuck fast. It's the pilot that has gone off the road. I just was closer to the bank than I thought. I was watching the trees, and... But a tow from the team gets it out. That'll do. (TENSE MUSIC) A very long two and a half hours after leaving David's workshop, the convoy finally arrives below Ian and Kate's site. The trucks pull in to a Department of Conservation campsite across the road to wait their turn for the next big challenge ` negotiating the steep, narrow driveway to get the pods on-site. In the Marlborough Sounds, the first pod in the convoy is attempting Ian and Kate's steep driveway. Ian has removed even more vegetation from both sides ` and just as well. (LEAVES RUSTLE) The 20-ton crane to lift the pods off the trucks and on to the foundations has already made it up the hill, but six more trucks carrying heavy loads have yet to follow. Good to see the first truck at least had little trouble. Now its pod has to be craned into position. Yeah, there's still a bit of tension to go yet. (CHUCKLES) This is the accommodation pod that goes behind the main house, at the limit of the crane's reach. Ian, the moment of truth's arrived. What do you reckon? First piece of your new home. It's` Oh, it's amazing. Whoo-hoo. (CHUCKLES) Kate's missing all the action because she's away working, but Ian keeps her up with the play with live reports. Ever so carefully, the accommodation pod is placed on its foundations. But, really, this pod is the easy one. Getting the five pods for the main house exactly in place is crucial. So, there's a bit of a challenge just coming up here. The layout of the building is actually really critical. And getting the curve just right, because if the first one is slightly out, then the cumulative effect of it being out will end up in the final pod being very skew. (CALM MUSIC) Yup, that's it. As the afternoon goes on, pod by pod arrive up the drive,... That's it. Yeah, so you gotta come in a bit there. ...and the exacting job of placing them precisely on the foundations continues. Just stand back here in the bedroom. So this is Ian and Kate's bedroom here. Hot damn! So, I'm looking straight down the Kenepuru Sound. It's 5 o'clock. David's been up since well before dawn, and he's pushing on. He said he'd be happy if two pods were in position by day's end. They actually get all six up. What an astonishing effort. Congratulations. Thank you. I'm amazed. Yeah, well, some days in this game, Chris, I wish I had an office job. Today wasn't one of them. What a day. We pulled it off. (CALM GUITAR MUSIC) Kate missed the move through work commitments, and she only got home after dark late last night. It was just amazing to go up and see it, you know, floating there on the hill. I felt very emotional, actually. I felt like, 'Look what Hugh's designed us, 'and look what David's built for us,' you know, so I just feel so much gratitude. (ENCHANTING MUSIC) (HAMMERING) One month later, and David and his assistant, Mark, have been living in the yurt on-site Monday to Thursday while they continue working on the pods. And now they're ready for another milestone ` the windows. We're hoping that the glass is gonna arrive in about an hour and that it'll all fit. Glass this size needs expert installation to avoid damaging the pods, smashing the glass or injuring the glaziers. Now hold it there. David's off overseas soon, and Mark's leaving too. So Ian will have to oversee the rest of the work himself, most of which will be done by subcontractors, but the couple are clearly on the homeward stretch. Another five to six weeks and they'll be moving in. Everything's going so well ` until it isn't. Just two weeks later the couple have been forced to move into a tiny boathouse belonging to their neighbours. Unlike their home on the hill, it's flat down here, and there's an inside shower and toilet ` all essential because Ian's just out of hospital. He's been badly hurt fighting a fire. So, we were watching the movie. Then the lights stuttered and the movie` the telly went out, and so we thought the generator's ran out of petrol. So Ian gets his shoes on to trek out and fill it up. Next minute he shouts, 'Fire!' It was the generator, and I thought, 'Oh, I can stop it. I can stop it from getting in to the`' Cos right next door through the wall was all the power gear. I was concerned that if it got into there, it could blow. And I'm watching the flames go that way, and there's my house ` my beautiful house. Ian admits he panicked. He was trying to fight a fierce fire with a garden hose, wearing Crocs on a steep and wet bank. I just slipped, and as soon as I tried to stand up, my` There was all this crunching sound and my foot just wasn't attached to my leg, and I just sat and watched it burn, and it was... it was heartbreaking to see that happen. (SNIFFS) Fortunately, the local volunteer fire brigade was quickly on the scene and made short work of putting the blaze out. Then a helicopter took Ian to hospital in Blenheim. The burn on my head was a superficial burn. The ankle, it was shattered. And I've got just about as many plates and pins as the house has now. EXHALES: Yeah. That was that. So, with Ian out of action and unable to work on the house as planned, the big question is, of course, what happens next. We're thinking about what we might do. We might slow it, have a little breather and allow my foot to heal. Ian's recovery could be very slow. So slow, in fact, there's no telling how long the couple's breather will actually be. They could well be spending the rest of the winter in this little boathouse while their dream home on the hillside above sits unfinished with no one working on it and no end in sight. (PIANO MUSIC) Four months after the fire and Ian's ankle injury, I get a call to come back to the pod house. Ian and Kate have moved in. Driving on this road reminds me of how incredibly intrepid this whole journey has been for Ian and Kate. Seeing that convoy of pods inching its way around this precarious road is an image that I'll never forget. And I'm thinking, 'Boy, I hope it has been worth all the heartache and drama.' (INSPIRING MUSIC) Looks gorgeous. It's all come together so beautifully ` a small and perfectly crafted work. The stunning use of wood and the graceful curve of the pods stretching like a necklace along the contour, sitting lightly on the land. Hey, hey. Hi, Chris! Hi. Hello, Koa. Nice to see you. Mwah! Lovely to see you too. Welcome to our beautiful home. Hiya. It is gorgeous! Oh my goodness. You must be happy with this. Really, really happy. And how's your leg? Well, it's good now, and I'm happy just to be walking. Oh, well done. So, come and have a look. I'd love to. Come and have a look. (UPLIFTING MUSIC) It may be small, but, gosh, that view is huge. You really feel like you've just fallen into the sound. I mean, it's fabulous there, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It really is. This is first class; clever design and brilliant execution combining to create a very special living space. There are all these details that have been in my head through the whole build ` like, for example, the construction of the pods. I mean, you instantly see the structure of them. That really sets up this wonderful rhythm. I love the way the wedges sit between the pods to create the curve of the whole house. The ceiling emphasises the connection too, using the ancient Japanese technique of burning wood that preserves and colours it at the same time. And the timber joinery between the pods is exquisite and functional. This is a really nifty feature that Hugh came up with for ventilation. This creates a lovely air flow coming through. Isn't that amazing? That's what you need. Perfect for up here. Yeah, and they alternate, the way they open, so depending on the wind... Very nice. Now, tell me ` what are these lights? They're gorgeous. Yeah, the lights are from James Russell up in Auckland. These are hand-cast glass stalactites. I contacted him, and he said, 'Look, I really love your work, and the project sounds amazing,' and so we did an artistic exchange. So did you have to do a special painting for him? No, he looked on my website and found some paintings that he liked. That was a really lovely connection, you know. The kitchen sits naturally in its own space while still being part of the open-plan layout. Its clean lines and careful choice of componentry help define its individuality. And what have you done with the bench? This is really interesting. Yeah, isn't it fantastic? It looks like concrete, but it's actually recycled Tetra Paks from Germany. Oh gosh. The wonderful thing about it is that it's so light. So, you know, we couldn't have heaviness on these pods. And I love the way that this unit fills the space,... Yeah. ...but it's very much informed by the geometry of the roof. That's right. The slope of the cabinets echoes the slope of the beam coming across, and I really love that. The back of the pod house is Ian and Kate's private space. The old outdoor toilet and shower have been replaced. It's all indoor now. And there's a lovely surprise as well. Oh boy. I know ` another beautiful view. The rear two pods are not walled off as originally planned. The couple's bedroom and Kate's office are now one. The thought of closing this in just to one little thing ` we thought, well, this is Kate's workspace over here. It doesn't have to be that separate. This beautiful space is also a sitting room, and the couple have their pets to thank for that. The dogs showed us this, cos they always used to come, and they would just lie, looking out the window, and it was a very still, kind of peaceful place. But I bet lying in bed at night ` you'd get that view, wouldn't you? Exactly. Right down the curve of the whole spine of the house. The viewing corridor has been renamed the 'sunset strip', and it's easy to see why. Oh, this! This is gorgeous! Isn't that beautiful? Right down to the end. Yeah. The whole of the sounds. I couldn't think of any better place to be. It is utterly gorgeous. The deck will soon be complete with the addition of a balustrade and an awning. It's almost job done. (CAPTIVATING MUSIC) It has been such a crazy journey for you two. The transformation from 'yurt dwellers'... Yeah. ...to being here ` how does that feel? Well, it feels a little unreal still, actually, Chris, and I'm just getting used to this, because one of the things I loved about living down in the little spaces is that connection with the outside. So I was afraid that moving up here, I'd lose that connection; I'd be in a house again. But I feel like this house pulls the outside in. What about you, Ian? The thing that I think I feel most satisfied with is that we stuck to our principles with the sustainability and using things that are local, like the decision to use eucalyptus instead of pine. It's cost us in the end financially, but I think it's worth it. So, the budget ` that was gonna be 725 and not a penny more, from my memory. Yeah, that's good memory. (CHUCKLES) That was what we believed. How much over did you go? We went about` It was about 35%. 35%? Boy. It was a lot. That's quite substantial. Yeah. Everyone said at the beginning, it's always gonna go over. So the bank came to the rescue? They did. Yeah. The increased mortgage means the couple want to move quickly on plans to renovate their old quarters as holiday accommodation. There's also a pod for guests behind the house. This was the plan right from when we bought the land back in 1999. This was always what we were going to do. You know, live the life, really. What do they say in New Zealand ` live the dream? Yeah. So that's really starting to happen. Ian and Kate's pod house was always gonna be a challenge right from the start. But what it proved is that if you have the right team, no dream is impossible. Hugh's inspirational, prefabricated design coupled with David's wonderful craftsmanship and Ian and Kate's love of nature resulted in a home of exquisite beauty. I'd live here. Wouldn't you? Captions by Michaela Cornelius. Edited by Tracey Dawson. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2018