- All over the country, people are moving houses. - Watch that truck, eh? - Wow, this is getting tight now. - Can you swim? - (LAUGHS) - From old villas... to modern homes and even historic churches... - Oh, good work there, Clarke. - Like a glove. ...they're giving new life to buildings and structures that once faced destruction. - Front wheels are skidding. - Whoa! Oh! - (BLEEP) - There's no obstacle too big... - I only need a millimetre. - ...and no challenge too great... - Up a little bit on the hook, Don. - ...for the people who take this on. - It's starting to get very ugly down this hill. - Hold on. Whoa, whoa, whoa! - How far would you go to match your ideal house to the location of your dreams? This time ` a historic two-storey mansion is on the move. It's being saved from the wrecking ball by a hardworking couple with an extraordinary secret family. - Family don't know. - Shh. (ALL CHUCKLE) - They've got the perfect site... - It's like we've got this land ` why aren't we living on it? - Just watch him. He's still running hot. - ...but will the old homestead survive the 150km road trip... It feels tight. - Dude's got attitude problems, eh. - RT: I literally had to wake him up, dude. - ...or will unexpected roadblocks turned this dream into a disaster? - Yeah, if they touch together, Drew, it's gonna spark. Here we go. (CRACK!) - So come along for the ride. This is... www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2023 Wow, Craig Walker's house yards here in Kumeu are usually chocka full of houses. It's like being a kid in a candy shop. This yard's actually for sale, and this is the last house standing. It's actually been here for a number of years waiting for a new owner, which actually doesn't surprise me. All I see is dollar signs, stress and a phenomenal amount of work. But I hear that it's luck's about to change. The house is moving to a property not far from here. Waiuku couple Anita and Mitch are busy parents with a dream of creating the perfect country haven for their four kids where they can get away from it all. - You know, get out of suburbia and head out into the country. - They live and work in Waiuku with their four kids... - We're always doing something, always got a project on the go, always something to do, never a dull moment. - ...but spend every weekend camping on their lifestyle block here on the Awhitu Peninsula. - It's gotta be Auckland's best-kept secret. We've had the caravan here, you know, maybe a year after we got the property. And it's just since we got that up there, made it, you know, actually more accessible, we come up and stay for a couple of days and get stuff done. It's good for the kids. Yeah, it gets them outdoors, gets them off those devices. - Mitch runs an export company, and Anita is a family researcher and homeschools the four kids full time. And after seven years camping in their caravan, they've decided it's time for a house. - It's like we've got this land ` why aren't we living on it? - We looked at a few options with building, but it never panned out. - They've been on the hunt for two years and found the perfect home. And what they've fallen in love with ` at the Craig Walker yard 150km away in Kumeu ` is a house that's close to home in more ways than one. This isn't just a house, is it? You've got strong family connections to this place. - Yeah, it's my great-grandparents' house, Stephen and Daisy Vella. - Must have been quite a shock to see your old family home pop up on Trade Me. You'd thought it had gone somewhere to start a whole new life, and yet it was apparently homeless. - Yeah. - And the family don't know. - No, none of my family know. - OK. - No, I've kind of kept it on the downlow. - Ah. - Yeah. - Yeah. - And it's a secret of gigantic proportions. At 255m2 and at least 120 years old, Mitch and Anita's new home is a Victorian Gothic charmer. - When my grandmother passed away and my auntie, the properties ` all three of them ` were sold. They were all on different titles. Obviously, the developers bought it, and I don't know who bought the house, but it was moved off there, and we just thought it was gone, and then we stumbled across it on Trade Me. Craig said they might put a bulldozer through it. I thought, 'Oh, well, better do something.' - I've been involved in a few surprises over the years, but never a whole house. - It's been a few slips, like with the kids, like, on the phone talking to Nanny and Gramps the other day. And Guy said, 'Oh, there's been heaps of changes up here. You'll have to have a look.' We were like (WHISPERS), 'Guy, ssh.' - (LAUGHS) The old homestead, originally on Manukau Road in Auckland, had been owned by Mitch's grandmother since 1946. And do you have any special memories as a kid of this place? - Yeah, we'd just play around the house, and it had, like, pretty neat gardens out the front, old guava trees and peaches and stuff. Yeah, it was a cool place. - The house had been sitting derelict for many years, as well as being pulled apart, relocated and stitched back together twice already. Have either of you tackled a project like this before? - On a smaller scale. - On a smaller scale, definitely, yeah. - We've done little bungalows. - Where do you start? - We'll get that bathtub inside, I think. (ALL CHUCKLE) The one that's sitting outside on the roof. - Any idea who'd behind why there's a bathtub on the roof? - The main bathroom is actually upstairs. So when they've pulled it apart, grabbed the bath and just popped it on the roof... - (CHUCKLES) - ...ready to go back in again. - I see. So when it all comes back together, the bath pops back inside. - Yeah. - I don't wanna state the obvious, but there's a bit of work to do. - A little bit (!) - (CHUCKLES) - We've got four kids ` they'll be busy. All right, you guys can go first. - It's a big moment for the kids who have never been inside their great-grandmother's home until now. - Whoa. - So is this your first time inside the house? - Yeah. - The house is split in half by a long hallway downstairs, leading to two large master bedrooms on the right-hand side and a separated living room that joins on to a dining room on the left. Down the other end is what's left of the old kitchen and bathroom, and travelling upstairs leads to another four large bedrooms and yet another bathroom where the house is still braced from its move to the Craig Walker yard three years ago. But you think, like, this could be your bedroom? - Nah. (ALL CHUCKLE) - A wee bit of work to do. Anita, what is this room, for example? Have you thought out the plan of the house? - Uh, this is actually gonna be the kitchen. - OK. - Yeah. Surprise, I know. I wasn't quite sure myself. And I'm even thinking about putting a wood burner stove in. - What do we have here? - This will be the lounge. - TV's going on the wall up there? - Yes. - Excellent. Are you happy with that? - Yeah. - Where's the PlayStation go? - No, Xbox. - Xbox, beg your pardon. (ALL LAUGH) - I might have, like, a little shelf over here. - Oh, an entertainment unit, you're thinking, Guy? This is good. While it's in need of some serious TLC, with six bedrooms, it's massive with plenty of options for a big family. - I think there's` I think if we go through that door, that could end up being an en suite. So, yeah, it'd be a good guest room... - Yeah, nice. - ...especially if we've got any older relatives staying here; we don't have to go upstairs. - The house has seen a couple of renovations over the years, but Anita and Mitch are keen to keep as many original features as they can. Now, is this staying? - The kitchen in there's not. Have you had a look, guys? - Oh. - We're gonna turn it back into the original porch, how it used to be. - And keep that door there? - Yeah, we'll get a new door. - Or get a door. - Yeah, get a door. - Door missing. Upstairs, the four bedrooms each have a charming gabled window with original timber and architraves throughout. Does this all match up with your childhood memories. - Well, yeah, a little bit, without the bracing. - Without the bracing. - There was a door here and then a veranda that goes out. But there was always a, you know, 'Don't go through the door, cos the veranda might fall off.' - (LAUGHS) So the house has got a long history of being, sort of, in slight disrepair. - Yeah, it's always just been slightly patched up and never done properly. - I can see why so many potential buyers walked away ` the risk of moving a historic house for a third time plus a complete renovation. And so what about the purchase of the house and the move? - The purchase move's, I think, around 270 ` that's piled back together and made watertight. We've had the land for years, and it doesn't really owe us anything. So it's basically just the purchase of the house and the renovation. - Yeah. Right. So on top of that, yes` and then throw a bit more in and see how it goes. - Plus, plus. - Mitch and Anita have their hearts set on relocating the old family home to their lifestyle property in Awhitu 150km away. It's a risky journey for this building, but when I see the site they've chosen on their property, just an hour from Auckland, it makes total sense. So, Mitch, it was your love of bikes that's helped you find this place. - I grew up on a farm, you know, in the country, and we rode bikes around. And especially in the wintertime, you know, on the quads and that, we used to have a ball. And I could just see ourselves doing the same thing up here. Yeah, that's what sold it to me, and the view. As soon as we got here, and I saw that view, I was like, 'Yeah, this is it.' - Yeah, this is the site here ` and the house will be positioned so the front door is actually at the back, but that's because it'll be looking out over the harbour how it originally came off Manukau Road, and it sat on Manukau Road with the fireplace on the south side, so we figured that was the best place to have it. The driveway will sweep in over here. You'll be able to see the front of the house as you're driving in, and then you'll sweep in around the whole house, park around the other side and then walk round on to the front door. So you'll get a view of every corner of the house before you actually go into it. - So help me get my bearings here. Where's your new kitchen going to be? - Just in this corner here. - Oh, on this side. - Yeah. - Oh, I see. Right. - Yeah. And the lounge will actually be, yeah, just behind that where the fireplace was. - OK. - The porch is going to be looking straight out at the view. We have the most amazing sunsets and moonrises out here, so, yeah, make the most of it. - It's gonna be an amazing moment when you bring your mum up here for the first time. - Yes, it will be. I wanna make sure it looks a little bit better than the state it's in now. I think she'll be over the moon. - Your driveway, I did notice, gets steeper and narrower the further up we come ` are you worried about getting the house here? - I'm a bit more confident now. It should come in. We've spent a bit of time on it, fixing up any overhanging trees and any banks that might have been an issue. So I'm hoping we'll be OK on the day. The only thing is, when they come up, the driveway is a bit steep and a bit slippery, so we've got the tractor sitting up there if the trucks need a tow up. Other than that, it's fingers crossed. - It's an incredible sight. But typically for properties on the peninsula, access is not ideal, especially for a truck carrying a house. Anita and Mitch clearly have a connection not just to the home, but to this special land as well. But now, having driven up here and knowing how rickety the old homestead is, I'm not all that confident it's gonna to make it here intact. - Awhitu is on the southwest shores of the Manukau Harbour. It's about a 90-minute drive from central Auckland, unless, of course, you're towing a rather decrepit old Gothic mansion, in which case, I suspect it will take considerably longer. But this is a house that's used to things taking time and, I suspect, has many a story to tell. So with one week until moving day, I'm meeting up with the old home's new owner, Anita, who's using her research skills to see what else she can dig up about her new home. And so you've been learning quite a bit of history about the house. And so what have we got here? - A map of Onehunga. And the property was originally here ` and this is Royal Oak roundabout. So that's the Manukau Road. You can see there that that's got the original owner's surname, O'Gara. He passed away, sold up, and then the next family arrived in the early 1860s and more likely that they built the house. - It's fascinating watching Anita connect the history of the house back together and uncover more about the original owner, who, as it turns out, was an incredible artist and managed to capture a real snapshot of history of the area, including pictures looking across to the Awhitu Peninsula, a place where, of course, now we have to delicately pick up these old bits of home, take it all the way across, and then stitch it all back together. Moving day dawns, and the team from Craig Walker aren't wasting any time prepping Mitch and Anita's new home for the move. It has sat here on the yard for three years, and no one's more pleased to see it rehomed than the man responsible for moving it. - So we're about 100 out. So not bad. It's far better than watching it be demolished. It keeps the boys busy. And what we're doing is recycling old homes ` and that's what we're all about. - For me, I'm not used to seeing a two-storey home moved, but of course it won't be making the journey intact. And it's already been cut into four pieces from its last journey to the yard. So the first job of the day is craning the two top pieces on to the trucks. They'll then be moved to Awhitu tonight, and the bottom two will be taken tomorrow night. It is quite a long way to Awhitu ` for us, basically it's the same distance from here to Hamilton. The worrying points are the travelling with the light top storeys. They don't have a floor structure in them as such, so we've braced them. So it's looking after the bracing on the trip out. There's a couple of low wires through the county's area, and they are bare. - The crane's ready for the first lift, but the power lines could cause delays. So we need to get the top two pieces on the trucks before nightfall. Dave and the team need to counterbalance the weight exactly right in order to safely lift each piece... - RT: Nice and slowly on that hook. One touch. Hold, hold! - ...but already the lift is a stress on the old house. - Yeah, drifting down now, Matty. Yep, roger. - Keep it coming up, mate, a good metre. - Dave and the team have cut and craned the house twice before, but Mitch and Anita's dream home is on the hook this time. - Luffing down about another half metre. - The challenge just to get the pieces to the truck has everyone on edge. - Bring it right to the front, bro. - RT: What sort of weight have you got, Horse? Keep that going, Horse. Hook height's good. - About another metre. - Keep that luff going. A touch more to your left and we'll start coming down on the hook. - 300 off the headboard, mate, so keep luffing down if you want. Luffing down, mate. - One wrong move here, well, it just doesn't bear thinking about. - All right, nice and easy down on the hook, Horse. Down on the hook. - Come on back up a touch, Horse. - The first load is down on the trailer, but the team still need to safely crane the second top half on the other side. - On your hook, coming down. - OK, just holding that there. - We'll swing it out to you if you turn the red rope. - Nah, turn the building so it doesn't come over the top of anybody. - Nice and easy on that ramp, please. - Swinging to the left. Nice and slow, coming down now. Touching down my side. Keep it going. Hold. - All sorted. - Finally, the entire top half of the old homestead is down and on wheels. There's no turning back now. - So this is stage one, eh. It's always a weight off the shoulders to see it come down. Looks a little bit funny without her hat. - Tonight's route will take us out along the main arterial roads for 60km along the Great South Road out of Auckland to Karaka, then south west on State Highway 22 through the small towns of Pukekohe, Waiuku and Glenbrook before we hit the peninsula and wind our way along the twists and turns of Awhitu Road to Mitch and Anita's driveway. (SIGHS) And that's just night one. Then we've got to do it all again tomorrow night. I'm half expecting that truck to turn into a Transformer behind me, magnificent-looking thing. But here we go ` night one of two. In a straight line, we're actually not going that far, but the way we have to go to get there means it's 150km and taking what is a very special piece of family history on one last ride. Local authorities have dictated a start time of 10.30pm, so it's time for last-minute checks. There's a lot riding, literally, on the back of your truck. - Heaps. Heaps of costs, uh, heaps of liability and a lot of hopes and dreams, yeah. (RADIO DEVICE BEEPS) - All right. Get your arses in your seats. We're rolling. - At 10:30pm, we're rolling out of the Craig Walker yard in Kumeu with a 150km drive to Awhitu ahead of us. I'm riding up front with Dave and the first load. The second load will travel directly behind us. - Just crossing the rail now, Marky. - RT: All right, mate. - The weather forecast looks promising for now. But riding in convoy with two loads means the pilots' drivers will have an even harder job tonight, keeping the road users and our precious cargo safe. There's two pilots riding up front and one in between the loads and two at the back. But we're only 10 minutes out of Kumeu when the pilots alert us to a potential disaster. A car has ignored the wide load warnings... - Just watch him. He's still running hot, didn't even slow down. - Copy, mate. - ...and it's barrelling towards us with nowhere to go. - Windy road, car coming just on the right there, Dave. - Copy. - Fortunately, the driver of the vehicle has spotted us and jams on the brakes. - RT: He'll pull over. - 'That was a close call.' Jeez, that was tight. And the roads keep getting busier. - Yeah, there's a house coming the other way to me. - RT: Yeah, it's quite large. - This is classic. So we've got a case of being pulled up here at 2 in the morning... (TOOTS HORN) (LAUGHS) ...and saying hello to another significant load coming towards us. Whoo, look at that load! - It's a biggie. - 'It's an impressive site.' Crazy thing about this is the house that's coming towards us is going from where we're heading to. So there's a case of we'll take one out of there, and we'll put one back in its place. Amazing. - RT: And we've just got EasyMoves coming towards us too, Dave. They're just starting now. - Was that the call on the radio for even another load coming? - That's right. Yep. So we've got two classrooms coming out of Wiri. - Yep. - And that villa that just came out of Waiuku. - Busy night. - Busy night. - It's hard to imagine this happening anywhere else in the world. - Is old Clarkey asleep yet? - (CHUCKLES) - Nah, but he's pigged out on all his muesli bars and stuff. - A bit of marmite and chip sandwich would be right for him. - Oh, yum. Who's driving the truck behind us? - Uh, David. We're not that smart. So what we're doing is, eventually, we'll all be called David. - And so how do you tell the difference between Dave and` - So I'm Dave, and he's David. - Oh, hang on. I've heard someone calling someone Big D. - So he's Big D. I'm Little D. - You don't get Big D? - (LAUGHS) - The cheek of it. - Yeah. - We're snaking it way out of Auckland on the Great South Road. Our permitted route is bypassing us around Otahuhu, because the township is too narrow for our loads. But we're heading straight into our next obstacle. (HORN TOOTS) - RT: We're just gonna have to park up down by the ferries for a while by those roadworks they're doing to try and let that other house come through right in town there somewhere. - Oh, so are they actually resealing in Otara city? - By the sounds of it. And they're not gonna let us travel over till the seal dries. - Up ahead, the roadworks crew are laying asphalt, and the word from the pilots is there's no way through until it dries. So is this a problem? We're gonna... - Potentially. - It's a frustrating situation, but Dave has no choice but to park up. - We've still got a few hours up our sleeve, but` to disappear. - And to make matters worse, Dave's just heard there's more house traffic ahead. - So I'm not sure how long this is gonna take. So they got` they got two loads trying to get through. - Two loads? - Yeah. - It's a delay the team aren't expecting, and it's just made this move a whole lot tougher. And we are stuck. We've just heard that there's roadworks are here that will not let us go past. In fact, on the other side of those roadworks is another house that's not allowed to come this way. And it all has this snowball effect ` if we don't get moving soon, and we get out to the Awhitu Peninsula as morning traffic starts, well that's pretty much going gonna slow us right down to a crawl, and then, well, we can't really go anywhere. - Hi, Anita. - PHONE: Hey. Morning, Clarke. How's it all going? - Well, it's been going well. We are currently stopped on the side of the road. We've got a few issues with some roadworks that won't let us go past. - Oh. - Yeah. 'It's 3:30am, and we're still stuck at roadworks in Otahuhu. 'There's two classrooms coming from Wiri in the queue ahead of us from the opposite direction. 'And until they come through, we're not going anywhere.' So how do you feel about having a new home in, sort of, South Auckland? - (CHUCKLES) Well, we want it further south, by the sounds of it. - Yeah, a whole lot further south. 'Looks like our luck is about to change for the better. And we get the green light.' - All right. I'm glad we got that out of the way. - So we've just got the all clear, and we're back on the road. But as we approach the main roadworks, things get a little confusing. - Sorry, bro. Say that again. - They're not going to let us go through, because it's a one-way system, and it's the wrong way. I can see some cones getting angrily thrown. - We're heading south and our oversized loads don't fit with the temporary coned lanes. - Oh, that's good. Surely, though, this is... - I feel like a bit of angry cone-throwing, eh. - ...the main arterial through town. And their traffic management plan that they submit to council, there should be a, you know, 'What's your plan when an over dimensional load comes through?' - Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you can tell by the way that they're moving the cones that they're not happy about it ` getting kicked and thrown all over the place. It's another frustrating delay, but everyone's on a deadline tonight. It's a real battle of the after-hours road users. - RT: Is this new seals? Oh, there is new seals to the left there, Davey. - Yeah, I'm pretty angry up here, dude. - The roadworks are almost a kilometre long, and the mood is pretty tense. - You know, they've got a job to do and they've got to be done by 5 o'clock. - Apart from those flashing lights, you're good to go. - Finally, we make it to the other side. Whoo! - Storm in a teacup, eh? - Yeah, it's funny, isn't it? I mean, that was very stressful, and then suddenly we're all OK again. - Yeah. - So what do we got ` Manuwera, Takanini, Papakura, then we're gone. Out to the country. - So 20 to 4 in the morning ` is this where you were hoping we'd be? - Uh, I kind of thought we'd be a bit further ahead, to be honest, Clarke, but we've got the holdup on the roadworks there and a little slow to get going from the yard. (INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER) But having said that, we've still got plenty of time. - At this stage. - At this stage. - We've just come through the Papakura bypass, but we're about to hit another set of roadworks. Pull over to stop. Dave's having to pull a sign down here. But this is the second set of roadworks, and these guys have been past this roadworks in previous nights and found a less-than-helpful road crew. - RT: These dudes have got attitude problems, eh. I literally had to wake them up, dude. Now they're all shitty. - (CHUCKLES) It's been quite an eventful night. - Yeah. - Eventful and frustrating. Our chances of getting Anita and Mitch's new home to Awhitu before peak traffic are getting smaller. But this is a precious load, and Dave's not taking any chances. All right, so a quick stop to check the load. Won't be long. - Won't be long. - Just outside of Waiuku, and, of course, from that point forward, the road starts to get narrower, and the vegetation really becomes quite cosy. I shouldn't need these aeroplanes. They'll make me go to sleep. - Righto, Marky, we're rolling. See the old mate Power Board down here, bro. He's a bit worried about the wires along here too, bro. - RT: Let's slow everything up as we go under the wires. - But before we hit the narrow roads, there's low hanging wires to contend with. - Yep, these are the ones here. Yeah. - Oh, wow. This is probably the most critical part of the trip so far ` and it's power lines. The wires are live, low and dangerous. I don't know why they're so low. Yeah. If they touch together, Drew, it's gonna spark, so just stay back, dude. It'll give you a fright more than anything. - Dave is relying on the hydraulics to angle the load enough to slide the top storey under the live wires. (TENSE MUSIC) - You'll have to put it down into the weeds, Dave, and try and angle the roof the same way as the wires. - Well, Dave's just gone out in the back to guide the second truck through. Sounds like his load is slightly higher. And those are big power lines. I think they're the 15 K versions ` and if they touch, then 'boompha'. The second load, just inches through, no nasty sparks... this time. - On the move now, Marky. - We've officially bypassed Waiuku... - That's it. - ...and we're on our way. - 30 K's to go, Marky. - We're starting to make good time, but the open road between Waiuku and Awhitu is a bit of a danger zone. Everyone's travelling a whole lot faster, putting more pressure on the pilots to clear the road ahead. - RT: OK, You'll see them. There's three of them. It's pretty narrow where they are. - Early morning commuters have ignored the pilots' request to pull over, and now there's nowhere for them to go. - Are you guys having to stop down? - Uh, yeah, so these three cars just drove in towards the load, so now they're all trying to reverse. - Yeah, sorry, bro. They were all in a tight spot where they were. I couldn't do anything with them there. - Yeah, no worries, dude, just I can't see a bloody thing with that car backing up with his high beam on, but I'm coming down the centre of the road. - Reversing nearly a kilometre in pitch-black darkness on a country road isn't ideal, but the drivers have no choice. - Got there in the end. - Good work. (HORN TOOTS) - Missed it, mate. 10 to 6, we're on the final push. Matakawau ` what do you know about this place? - Probably, it does a good pie. - You a mince pie man? - Oh, I'm a steak and cheese, primarily, eh. - Steak and cheese. - Yeah. - When you're feeling fancy, do you go a pepper steak? - Ugh, nah. (CHUCKLES) - 'With daylight about to break, we're still 13km from Mitch and Anita's site.' Yeah, whoa, that's low. 'The most challenging part of the journey is still ahead of us.' - A couple of little scratchy trees down before the 65 on the corner. - Let's get out and have a look. I don't really want to break that skim board. - We've just come to a complete stop. There is a tree that is overgrowing the road, and it is` it is low. As Dave said, it's been a while since he's been up this far. And every time he comes up, the journey takes longer and longer because of the overgrowth. It's a relief to finally be clear of the tree. But that means we've got one final obstacle ahead of us, now for Mitch and Anita's driveway. (SIGHS) 6.22 and we're at the driveway. Let's see how much longer it takes to get to the top. Mitch was confident he'd trimmed the overgrown trees on the driveway, but there's a few fences to get over, so Dave's using the hydraulics to jack the house up 1.5m for the driveway approach. (TENSE MUSIC) Are the tyres slipping? - Yeah, just on the loose gravel. It's a bit like marbles, eh. I haven't got the diff locks on yet, so we're still a long way away from getting stuck. - A bit of wriggle room. - A long way away from you pushing at the back. (BOTH CHUCKLE) - It's a slow crawl. We're inching our way between a bank on one side and stumps on the other. - You can see where he's certainly cut the branches, some full trees. - Yeah. - You certainly need to bring a packed lunch out here. - Up here? - Yeah. - There's no pie shop nearby. - (LAUGHS) - We're making our way to the tightest point of the driveway. It's so close now. It's a nervous sight for the family, who've got up early to greet us. - As soon as we get it up that hill and around that corner, should be easy, (LAUGHS) hopefully, for them. - Yeah, I'll feel better once it's up of the driveway. - Our traction is just holding. With the sun coming up, we make it up the steepest part of the driveway. This hasn't actually proven too bad. Although, will we be a bit wider tomorrow night? - Yeah. Yeah, unfortunately. - Oh, here's the family ahead. 'It's been a long morning already for Mitch and Anita, but finally, 'the top half of the old family home is safely on site.' You had any sleep? - Uh, some. - Some? - Yeah. - So have you been back to sleep since I spoke to you at 3.30 this morning? - No. - No? So do you think your mum and dad have coped all right? - Yeah, I think they're happy. - Who's more excited ` Mum or Dad? - I think Dad. - Think Dad. - Yeah. - OK. - I'm excited we've got two pieces, and then tomorrow we'll get the other two. I think, yeah, I'll feel happy then. - So it's just after 8 o'clock, and we've finished the first part of the move, the easy part, apparently. Because tomorrow night, well, it gets harder, because the load gets longer and gets wider. And while the height is roughly the same, it's uniform all the way across, which means we lose our ability to lean around power lines and trees. So who knows how long that's gonna take. - It's nearly 10pm, and we're back at the Craig Walker yard in Kumeu 12 hours after the first part of the house landed in Awhitu. A beautiful night ` the stars are out; the weather's playing ball, and here we go again ` night two. Tonight we're taking the bottom half of Mitch and Anita's big secret to be reunited with the top already in Awhitu. We're hoping for a less eventful night on the roads, but both of tonight's loads are wider and longer. And it's that extra length that causes problems when you're trying to wriggle around things. - Correct. Because a majority of the length has become too forwardly... - Yeah. - ...not rear overhang. You have to hold your line for longer, and then you start running out of room. - So we're just overtaking loads here, because the rule of thumb is you always put the widest load in the front so that you know if you can get the front through, the back should follow. - And Clarke had issues riding second ` he didn't like it (!) - Well, what I've actually learned tonight is that if you ride behind, you're called the 'rude load'. - (LAUGHS) - You've got to be a very careful. You've got to be real balanced, strong type to ride rude at the back. - Yeah. - We're off to a good start, but the difference in load sizes tonight is obvious immediately. - It should be about 250 each side ` that would be my guess. - So when Dave says 250, we're talking about 25cm. We've got a load that is 15 tons, which is over 20m long, and we're playing with margins of 25cm on either side... of this very narrow bridge, which is why we're going slowly. We're only 5km into the journey, and we're down to a crawl. We're gonna be cutting it fine to make it to Awhitu before the morning traffic. You only need 10mm. - Yeah, I only need 10mm, apparently. - God, it's remarkable. So the average speed through the city is 30km/h. - It's typical until we get north of Warkworth or south of the Bombays, and then your average comes up. - It's gonna be a long night. - I bought, um, sausage rolls here. - Oh, you got your sausage rolls out. Whoo! Now we're talking. Oh, very nice. You've got the little sauce-y pot - Yeah, man. Yeah. So this is second for you behind the pie? -It's my first. 'I think that's some good sausage roll chat. 'And now we're hitting the Takanini overbridge that we cruised under last night...' Here we go ` through it. - '...but tonight's a different story.' Spot on the mirror. - Looking good at the moment on the low side of the steel. - RT: Yeah, you got good height through there. You've got at least 400 on that beam. - 'It's a super tight squeeze.' And you can hear the guys all talking to Dave in the truck so he can be confident in knowing that he's not going to clip the roof or either side. - We're away. - 'Whoo! We just clear the overbridge, 'but up ahead is the long line of frustrating roadworks. 'I'm not sure the workers will be pleased to see us again.' - Dave, I'm just going gonna go and have a look at what's down there, mate, cos they reckon we can't get through. - RT: Yeah, they've got their paving thing right in the middle of the road. - The road workers are refusing to move the cones for us, and we're forced to stop. - Not happy, man. There's lots of knickers getting twisted. (CHUCKLES) - Dave reckons there's enough room for us to pass, but the road workers aren't so keen to down tools for us. - So we were doing really well for time; this is gonna set us back quite a bit. - Finally, it seems the road crew are realising it's easier to stop work for a minute than to have a stand-off with Dave. - So common sense has prevailed. - Not happy, eh? - Not happy, no. - I did not get a friendly wave back. 'It's been another delay we didn't need. 'We're just clearing the roadworks, but there's another problem.' (CRACK!) - Ah, bugger. It's broken our skim board. - A branch from an overhanging tree has proved too strong for one of our skim boards, or eyebrows ` and they're vital for helping the load slide under low-hanging power lines So no sooner through the roadworks, then we had to pull over again. We've broken one of the eyebrows on the side here, hit an oak tree on the way through. So let's get the ladder out, go up, find a new runner board... - Strap it down. - ...and let's get going again. The eyebrow is sorted, and we're back on the road. (ROCK MUSIC) - Looking good on your bridge at the moment. - Copy, James. So we've got 100 each side. - Wow. Running 100mm on each side of this bridge so that is even narrower. Just 10cm per side, isn't it? - OK, coming off the bridge now, James. - It's 20 to 5 in the morning, and we've reached Waiuku. It's basically the last little town before heading up the peninsula to our final destination. 'We're through Waiuku, but that means the roads are getting tighter and more overgrown.' - Oh. There we go. (CRACK!) - Ohhh. - There we go. The wall struck on the next branch. - Jeepers, we really took out a considerable branch, yeah. - Yeah, I'll just have to, um, keep going. - Oh, here's another one. - There's no point in repairing the skim until we get through. - How are we gonna get through that tree up ahead? 'Mitch's old family home is taking a bit of a battering. 'but with more overhanging trees ahead, there's no place to stop.' - Just getting out of the way and to a bit of a wider area. Then I'll have to jump up on the roof. - 'We're so close now. 'Dave makes the call to push on to the driveway, and at 6.30, we pull up.' (SIGHS) We're here. (STRAINS, MUMBLES) Yeah, we're good. We made it to the driveway. Oh, that is hard work. What's the time? 6.30. We're inching our way to the end of the driveway, but the extra width makes it harder to navigate what are already tight corners. Oh, that's cuddly. Mitch did a pretty good job clearing the driveway, but he left two tall stumps, which are a problem for the side with the bay window... but not for long. (CHAINSAW THRUMS) (PULSING ROCK MUSIC) So over two nights, it's four parts travelling 150km each night. We've got one more little hill to come up and over, and then that's the final journey for this grand old building, nearly home. - A disco ball, you reckon? It's just beautiful, eh. I hope the other one gets through. - We're here with the second half of the house. (SIGHS) Now, of course, we're just going to put the house back together. - Morning, Clarke. - How are ya? - Good. - Yeah. - (CHUCKLES) - You know, I obviously didn't cut enough on the driveway. - You know, I know that you prided yourself on how you trimmed that driveway, but there was just a couple of stumps that were a little bit too high. - Yeah, my bad. - Are you filled with hope and optimism, or are you a bit overwhelmed with the jobs you've get to do? - No, I'm not overwhelmed with it. I'm, yeah, stoked that it's actually finally made it here and that we can get stuck into it. - There's been a special date just passed, hasn't there, Anita? - Uh, exact to the day, 76 years ago that Mitch's is great-grandparents purchased the house. - Might take us another 76 years to finish it. (CHUCKLES) - Do you think they've bitten off more than they can chew? - Nah. Nah, everything's easy, eh. You just gotta go one boat at a time ` that's how you get by. - Right. - Yeah. - One weatherboard at a time. - LAUGHS: Yeah. - One window sash at a time. - That's it. (SERENE MUSIC) (RHYTHMIC MUSIC) (RHYTHMIC MUSIC CONTINUES) - The bottom floor is together, now for craning the two top pieces. Each top piece weighs over 15 tons. So lifting them almost 10m in the year is a dangerous operation. - RT: I'll swing it out to you if you can take the red rope. - RT: Nice and easy, down on the whole house. Keep it going, mate. Easing up. Keep it going. - The third piece lands safely. Now all eyes are on the last piece. - Luffing down are we, there. Keep it going, mate. Bring the hook up. - Easing it up to a hold there. - Luffing down another half metre. Keep luffing down if you want. Luffing down, mate. - Like a house-shaped game of Tetris, finally, the last piece lands. - And hold. - (SIGHS) After travelling 150km in four pieces over two nights, the old family home is back together on the new site. Now, though, it's time to reunite Mitch's mum and reveal the family secret. I mean, she must be dying to come and have a look. - So excited. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Good. And now it all happens. Oh, and here they come. (SOFT MUSIC) - And there you go, Mum. There it is. - Oh my goodness. (SOFT MUSIC CONTINUES) - She's a bit rough and ready, but when it's finished, it'll be` I think it'll be a good spot it. - It looks amazing. Made me cry again. (LAUGHTER) - It's great that you've made it up here today. - (LAUGHS) - Hi. Sorry about the tears. - No, no, that's quite all right. It's a lot to take in. - I can't believe that you finally got it up here. - Shall we go and have a look? - Yes, please. - Mitch's mum last lived here 45 years ago. It's a wonderful reunion. - Hello, Grandma. We're home. Making me cry. - You think Mitch and Anita have done all right with this site and where it's placed? - It's amazing to see it back on a big site like this. It's still grand but obviously in need of a lot of work. - If you don't know where these two are for weekends on end, you'll now (LAUGHS) have some idea. - Yeah. - And so what do you think of the house's outlook? Do you feel like it's doing it justice? - The view is magnificent, yeah. She's been set free. - (CHUCKLES) Set free, yeah. This is such an extraordinary story of a family home that was just weeks from demolition. It found its family again. And there's nowhere to dress up the fact that there's a big reno job. And I know that Mitch and Anita do wanna take their time with this. But I guess for me, it's a case of finding out if this worn out yet gorgeous old house can once again become the heart of a family. And I can't wait to find out. - So it's been almost a year since busy working couple Mitch and Anita moved their 120-year-old mansion nearly 150km to this spectacular site on the Awhitu Peninsula. It was a big move, an even bigger restoration project. And given that they have a very busy family of four, I'd be quite surprised to see if much work has been done. Either way, I'm still keen, though, to see if the original passion is still there to restore Mitch's great-grandparents' home back to its original glory. Arriving at Mitch and Anita's place, I'd actually forgotten just how incredible their family home is. It may have been built in Onehunga, but it was born to live on the Awhitu Peninsula. But it does look like there's still a few scars from its previous life ` I wonder what the story is. Hello. Oh, sorry. (LAUGHS) I gave you a fright. How ya going? - Hey, Clarke. How are you? - I was excited to see you both. Just enjoying your view, are you? - Yeah. - And why not? Have you been hard at work. - Not as much as we probably hoped, eh? - No. Would have liked to be a bit more further ahead, but we are getting there. - You haven't quite got up here as often as you'd like. - No. - 'It sounds like for Mitch and Anita working full-time and raising four teenage kids 'hasn't left much time for renovating their dream home, 'but they have managed to unearth some unexpected treasures.' - We've found a few bits and pieces in the walls, so I'm kind of quite excited about, you know, what else we're gonna find. - With Anita's passion for the family's history, that must have been gold. Hopefully I'll get to see some of those when we go inside. One major thing Anita and Mitch have done is get the original upstairs balcony reattached ` back at the yard, it was in a sorry state. You got your balcony back, because, I mean, that was inoperable prior to that, right? - Yes. Yeah, I hadn't been out on it for years; we were never allowed out there as kids. So, yeah, we can actually walk out there now. - Wow. There's no doubt this house is on its way to once again being the heart of the family, but there's still a lot of work to do to get it there. - I think the benefit of time is as it's, kind of, evolving, and we can see more and the bracing's gone, we can, kind of, decide at a slower pace... - Yeah. - ...of exactly what we want, where we want it and how we want it to look at the end. - I think Anita's right. And I'm sure Mitch's grandparents would approve of them taking a considered approach to the restoration. So the secrets of the house slowly revealing themselves. What have we got here? - It's an original letter and quote from the builder when Mitch's great-grandparents purchased the place. - Sounds like they were redoing the foundations... - Doing the foundations. - ...and a bit of base work around it. - BOTH: �116. - We need to get a hold of this guy (!) (ALL LAUGH) - Let's see. Well, he didn't date the quote; it might be still valid. (ALL LAUGH) We might be able to hold them to that. Anita and Mitch have so many options with this beautiful home. Right now, plans include returning the sunroom and a small kitchenette to the original verandas and reinstating the formal dining room... while upstairs will be all about the kids, which means they get access to what's arguably this home's greatest feature... a working balcony. How could you be unhappy with a view like that? That is special. Now that it's here, are you feeling good about it, Mitch? - Yeah, I feel really good about it. And I feel excited about coming up here now. You know, before it was coming up to a bare land to work work. And now I'm coming here to work, but it's obviously` it's for a bigger purpose. - Mitch and Anita bought their 44-acre property in 2015 for $207,500; buying Mitch's grandparents house plus move cost $276,000. Setting a family base up with such a lovely rich history connected back to your family for generations to come. - And I think it's just preserving history too, actually saving something that was destined for the scrapheap. - A few family members have come today to thank Mitch and Anita for all their hard work getting the family home this far. - Thank goodness for Mitchell and Anita. Oh, it's just lovely. - Couldn't see a bulldozer go through it. - Oh, it's the memories. The memories are incredible. - Grandma and Grandpop would have been absolutely smiling. - This is the light, the original light from the` - Oh, get out! The unexpected return of an original light from the home's lounge by Colleen's cousin Murray has reminded me I've got my own little gift to give. With that in mind, I got you two a little something. - (GASPS) Oh, wow. - Oh my gosh. - That's awesome. - Wow. That's amazing. - What I love about this is that you have brought your old Daimler up. 'And it presents an opportunity too good to be missed.' OK, You ready? Ready, Amy. Yep. (CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS) There we go. This was always gonna be such a massive restoration project, But I guess the point ` for me, certainly ` is that this house has survived, and it hasn't been demolished. And it's got those incredible family links. And with the enthusiasm and drive of Mitch and Anita, it means that, like a fine wine,