- Jack Leason is selling his off-grid home in Ōtaki Gorge Road, which he bought in 2019 for $380,000.
- The property features a tiny house, composting toilet, and extensive gardens supplying local families.
- Leason and his wife are moving closer to family, with the property listed for over $750,000.
A Kāpiti homeowner who was raised on protest and prayer has put his family’s off-grid home on the market for sale.
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Jack Leason, the son of one of New Zealand’s Waihopai spy station “saboteurs”, bought 1202 Ōtaki Gorge Road, in Te Horo, at the end of 2019 for $380,000, but didn’t move in until March 2020, just before lockdown.
The 5.64ha property was so off-grid at that one point that Jack and his wife Hanneke had no power source at all.
“We had no electricity, running water, toilet, shower, anything,” said Jack. “It was very basic. And the lockdown [meant] we couldn’t really go out. We just had to work with what we had.”
They had already moved onto the land a two-bedroom home they built while university students. “The main house was a tiny house on a trailer,” Jack told OneRoof. “We built it down at my parents’ place and worked on it over a few years, chipping away. It’s all recycled materials and was a bit of a labour of love.
Jack Leason and his wife Hanneke built the two-bedroom home when they were students. Photo / Supplied
The house has grown according to their needs and the needs of their growing family. Photo / Supplied
“While we were building it, we had it propped up high on some bricks out in a paddock, not really tied down. A big storm blew it over on its side. That was pretty devastating at the time, but we managed to pull it up with a crane and straighten it out. We’ve tied it down pretty well now, that’s for sure.”
Jack and Hanneke spotted 1202 Ōtaki Gorge Road for sale while out tramping through the nearby Tararua Ranges. “We’d been doing quite a lot of tramping in the Tararuas and saw a for sale sign as we were heading out of Ōtaki Gorge,” Jack said. “We’d been looking for a place to pop our tiny house, so we called the number and made an offer. That was the end of 2019.”
“It moved quite fast,” said Jack. “Over the summer we moved the tiny house on. It was just a big bare paddock at the time.”
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The couple’s first child was born in the winter of 2020, at the height of the pandemic, but life slowly got easier as the growing family built their organic paradise.
“It’s all off-grid,” Jack told OneRoof. “We have a composting toilet, which we built. There’s a wood stove in the house. Water is from a rain tank and also a stream.
“We built the place with just us in mind, so we had to start doing add-ons. We built a bedroom off the back when our second child came along.” The property has two sleepouts now, and other buildings to house their growing family and menagerie. “We have three kids now and had to extend things each time.”
The land has served the family well. “I’d always been into gardening, but when we moved up there, we put in some big veggie gardens and a tunnel house,” said Jack.
The couple came across the 5.64ha block of land while out tramping in 2019. Photo / Supplied
The property is "all off-grid. We have a composting toilet. There’s a wood stove in the house. Water is from a rain tank and also a stream." Photo / Supplied
“We were growing heaps of surplus, so I started a small veggie subscription for local families, just supplying a weekly veggie bag over summer. The following season I linked up with some other local farmers, and we started a larger operation, growing food for the veggie bags.”
Then discussions with Ōtaki College led to the operation expanding onto the college grounds as the main growing site. “We work with kids in the garden and also run it as a social enterprise business,” said Jack. “We’ve got 50 local families we’re supplying each week. This is our third summer running that scheme.”
The couple also planted tens of thousands of trees on their land. “Right from the start we started planting a lot of native trees,” Jack said. “We’ve really lost count. They’re still small, but hopefully there’s going to be a big wetland forest area down the line. We planted 70-odd fruit trees, they’re just starting to fruit, which is very exciting. And we’ve done a fair bit of fencing and drainage too.”
Dad Adi Leason is famous for his protests. He was involved in the sabotage of the Waihopai spy base. Photo / Corey Fleming
Adi’s son Sam, Jack’s brother, made headlines when he was detained by Israeli forces earlier this year. Photo / Supplied
Jack’s family is well known in the area and gets involved in a variety of good causes and social programmes.
Dad Adi Leason is also an organic gardener and made headlines when he was arrested in 2008 after sabotaging the Waihopai spy base (Waihopai Station satellite monitoring facility).
In a report on the Catholic Archdiocese of Wellington’s website, Adi explained how the spy station attack was driven by his deeply held commitment to the world’s children. The report said Adi estimated that Waihopai was directly responsible for at least one of the 214 civilian daily deaths each day of the war with the United States of America that was raging at the time.
“After the arrest and a short time in custody, Adi started parking his bus outside the United States Embassy in Wellington once a month and leading prayer and scripture study with a group of Catholic Worker supporters,” the Catholic Archdiocese article said.
Another off-grid home up for grabs in the neighbourhood is 1309 Ōtaki Gorge Road. Photo / Supplied
Adi and fellow protesters engaged peacefully with police while studying the Gospel of Mark. “It’s a lovely Kiwi paradox because in another country that might be incredibly frightening, but these cops are good guys, half of them will be Catholics anyway, and there was a nice rapport, friendly with goodwill,” Adi said at the time. “They understand what we’re doing."
Adi and Shelley Leason have seven children. Another one of those children, Jack’s brother Samuel, 18, made international headlines in September this year when he was detained by Israeli forces in the Gaza aid flotilla.
Jack and Hanneke are selling their home in order to move closer to his parents: “Close to my parents’ farm. Just over the stream from them. To be close to grandparents. With some nice flat farmland to do more agriculture. A lot of our community is down there, and I grew up in Ōtaki.”
The two-bedroom, one-bathroom 60sqm home on 4.64ha of land is for sale with Derek Kelly, of Kelly & Co Realty, for buyer enquiry over $750,000.
It’s one of two off-grid homes Kelly has for sale in the same street. He is also selling 1309 Otaki Gorge Road, with buyer enquiry over $825,000.
“It’s a little rustic cabin and looks down over Jack’s place. They built a beautiful small home seven years ago that’s their holiday home. They live in Tawa, and they pack a chilly bin every second weekend, and stay for three or four nights. As soon as their food and wine run out, they know it’s time to go back to Tawa."
Kelly said that the two properties were very different, although both would appeal to people who are “sick and tired of modern life”.
“It’s either people who want to get away from everything and live there, or people that want to use it as a weekender or for hunting or have a lifestyle.”
- 1202 Ōtaki Gorge Road, Te Horo, Kapiti Coast, is for sale, buyer enquiry over $750,000
