It’s not hard to fall for the Wairarapa; and a weekly blog, ‘Moon over Martinborough’ by an ex-pat American, describes just such a love affair with this region.
Jared Gulian and his partner typify the diversity of people drawn to the Wairarapa. Originally from the Detroit area, Jared wound up in Wellington via a stint in Japan. It was a nomadic trail that found him putting down roots on a rural property on Martinborough’s fringe.
During his travels in Asia, Jared explains, many happy collisions with itinerant Kiwis planted the seed to move here.
“We applied for residency, rolled the dice to see what would happen – and won the lotto.”
After three years in Wellington, Jared’s partner chanced on a property for sale in Martinborough.
“My partner told me about this great property he’d found. I said, ‘No, I don’t want to move to the country’ and he said just ‘come see it’. We came out, the house was locked, and we walked down to the olive grove and as soon as I saw the grove I fell in love. It was definitely the trees that got me.”
The property has a five hundred-tree olive grove that slopes gently to the ever-changing Huangarua River.
It was the friendliness of the couple’s new neighbours, and not just the bucolic scenery, that made Jared realise they had made a permanent and life-changing decision.
“On our first day we had about six of our friends from the city helping us move. This guy showed up on our front door with a grey beard and thick sweater. He looked to my mind like a real farmer. It was our neighbour and he invited us for a BBQ. We said that’s kind but we’ve got all our friends here and he said that’s fine I do my own home kills I’ll take more meat out of the freezer! So we met all our neighbours that first night, it was so nice, and they’ve been fantastic ever since.”
As a gay couple, Jared and his partner had some misgivings about integrating into a small, country town. Happily it’s proven to be an easy transition.
“We often joke that we’d be dead in the corner if it weren’t for our neighbours. When our pump went our neighbour, who knows things city-dwelling apartment guys don’t know, helped us fix it. Our other neighbours helped us with our olive harvest. We have been so lucky meeting people. People are so nice … it’s a Kiwi thing.”
A passionate writer, the ‘Moon Over Martinborough’ blog documents the rhythms of Jared’s new life here.
“The blog combines my love of writing, my love of the web and my love of Martinborough.
“I can express my gratitude for living here because I love it so much. It centres me and it’s also great writing practice – I try and tell a story every week so there is a hook for the reader. Conflict, character, dialogue and resolution – all that stuff you do in a novel you do in 1500 words - it’s a great discipline, I post a new story every Saturday. I’m having a lot of fun with it.“
Visitors from Jared’s native US are dazzled by his new life.
“I always say Kiwis are spoilt for beauty. There’s so much of it. The hills when they turn brown, the way the vineyards change colour all year round. We’ve never been so connected to our food source, our neighbours. People live their whole lives like this and don’t realise how amazing it is. Now we can’t imagine ever leaving, we love it so much here.”
Jared’s blog is at moonovermartinborough.com.
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