Kaipara Harbour New Zealand Olive Oil

At an age when many couples are seriously looking at retirement villages near golf courses or beaches, Barry and Verity Baines embarked on a new adventure to grow olives commercially on an old dairy farm. If you believe the ads on TV showing lively geriatrics running around attributing their zest and health to olive oil, then they should have plenty of bio-fuel to run on for many years to come.

They bought eight hectares next to the Kaipara Harbour on Merril Road (an offshoot from Petley Road near Paparoa) and hand planted 7.5 hectares with 1200 olive trees and a small patch with pine nuts. Barry’s daughter Lynn and partner Peter have caught the bug too and put in another 200 olive trees on an adjacent block of land.

Whilst commuting to the olive farm on the weekends and working in Auckland during the week Barry and Verity set about trying to find a small dwelling to relocate on their land. To their surprise they found that the Good Shepherd’s Chapel in Arney Road, Remuera was to be sold. The Chapel itself was built in 1965 under the direction of Sister Miriam. It was apparently used for people training as missionaries and later as a haven for younger people sorting out troubles in their lives. The Chapel is contemporary in style with a lovely high wooden ceiling.

Relocation of the Chapel to the Kaipara was no small undertaking requiring the building to be cut in two horizontally before being transported by road, relocated and reassembled at the olive grove on the shores of the Kaipara.

Today the Chapel has been, for the most part, restored to its original condition with beautiful soaring timber ceilings and floors. Barry and Verity have added bedrooms and other living quarters onto the Chapel to accommodate family and friends.

The Chapel is located in the centre of the farm looking out across the olive trees (Koroneiki, Frantoio and Leccino) to a large fresh water pond where wild geese migrate and then onto the mangroves where the Pukeko play and the ever changing seas and skies of the Kaipara Harbour.