- Mike Wight and his late partner, Sandra Tumaru, built a Wild West-inspired home in Wānaka using recycled materials.
- The three-bedroom home features unique elements like antique tractor seats and saloon doors.
- The property, listed for $3.5m to $4m, is described as “more than a house” by agent Luc Ravel.
It’s a slice of the Wild West, but in Wānaka.
Start your property search
Owner Mike Wight and his late partner, Sandra Tumaru, built their frontier home after an inspiring tour of the United States on their Harley Davidson motorcycles.
They were taken by the ranches they saw in Santa Fe, and saw a chance to bring some of that cowboy spirit to Albert Town.
Wight and Tumaru, the former a furniture finisher, the latter a postie, had been collecting recycled materials for several years, and used all of it in their new build.
“We’d been collecting bridge beams, telephone poles, timber for flooring, ceilings, things like that,” Wight said.
Once they’d settled on an approximate design, the couple approached Wānaka-based Strawmark to do the straw-bale build. “We just did all the donkey work,” Wight said.
Wight and Tumaru took their inspiration from the Wild West. The pair loved what they saw on their biker tour of the US more than 20 years ago. Photo / Supplied
The stylish house is built with materials they salvaged from around New Zealand, including beams from a bridge in Palmerston North. Photo / Supplied
The three-bedroom, two-bathroom home they created on their 4023sqm plot of land at 9 Balneaves Lane has multiple living areas, including a media room and a loft with built-in beds for seven. There are several outbuildings on the ranch, including a two-car garage housing the couple’s collectible cars, and two railway carriages that had once been part of the Otago rail network.
Wight said the couple travelled around the South Island for their salvage quest. “It was just amazing, the amount of stuff that all of a sudden turned up and was for sale,” he said. “Like a house load of doors we got from Christchurch cobber [friend] of mine. He was pulling down an old house, so we took all the doors. We went to an auction in Luggate and bought a whole lot of bridge beams. They were from a bridge in Palmerston. We hadn’t even designed a house at that stage, so we just stored them.
“We got some old doors that were from India. We got them from a second-hand place in Dunedin that’s since closed down. We had the doors made wider and taller to use as the front doors. The telephone poles were sourced from around Central Otago.”
Discover more:
- 98-year-old landlord with heart of gold selling his collection of A-frame homes
- Pimped-out shed in suburbia sells for close to $1m at heated auction
- The $18m golf 'bach': First luxury home to hit open market at exclusive course
The home has unique features at every corner, such as the breakfast bar, which was milled from leftover timber used in the walls and ceilings. The same breakfast bar has antique tractor seats attached to pipes made by Wight’s brother-in-law.
Not everything is antique. Many of the features, such as the saloon doors into the bedroom, were purpose-built for the property.
Wight, 60, said he made the difficult decision to sell following the death of Tumaru. He told OneRoof that he loved the home, but it was time to downsize.
The kitchen includes reclaimed tractor seats. Photo / Supplied
The saloon doors in the bedroom are a fun touch. Photo / Supplied
The garage is where the couple stored their collection of vintage cars. Photo / Supplied
New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty agent Luc Ravel said the guide price for the property was $3.5m to $4m, well above the RV of $2.5m, which he said did not reflect the property’s true value.
He said the house would appeal to those looking for something a bit different. “It’s more than a house,” Ravel said. “It’s a piece of art. There are heaps of fine details. Even something as simple as the straw bale windows were made out of gears from an old tractor.”
Revel said he had a potential buyer fly from Cairns just before the listing went live. “We’ve got another viewing booked for the 26th from another couple in Australia.”
9 Balneaves Lane isn’t the only Wild West-style home to attract attention in recent months. Last year, OneRoof reported the sale of two historic buildings with a bit of cowboy charm in the tiny North Island town of Mangaweka.
Mellonsfolly Ranch, a reproduction of a 19th-century Wyoming frontier town in Ruapehu, was withdrawn from the market last year after failing to find a new owner. Photo / Supplied
The properties, which looked as if they’d been teleported from the Wild West, were snapped up after the listing agent was inundated with calls from around New Zealand and overseas.
More than 100km north of Mangaweka is a better-known example of wild west real estate, Mellonsfolly Ranch, a replica cowboy town which was withdrawn from the market last year after a near-five-year search for new owners.
Bayleys listing agent Knud Bukholt said he has received interest from around the world, but not at the level required for a sale.
Back in the South Island, buyers can pick up an entire lakeside village in North Otago for just over $2.9m. It isn’t cowboy-themed, but the 14ha Lake Waitaki Village comes with eight three-bedroom houses, including two that have been renovated, a large five-bedroom lodge, a cafe/bar with a full commercial kitchen and a 10-bay garage.
- 9 Balneaves Lane, Albert Town, Wānaka, is for sale, deadline closing March 12
