Original subtitles

- I'm on a hunt to help find everyday Kiwis their perfect country house.

Things are a little different out here in the country. You still have the hustle and bustle.

Your neighbours can sometimes be a bit noisy.

Time moves a little slower.

But you don't get this...

in the city.

www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2023

Today's episode is a real treat, as we head to the picture-perfect town of Kaikoura,

where we'll meet a couple of characters, Sue and Ted.

These two are back in town for the unbeatable lifestyle and the friendly people.

They're after a home with enough room for their loved ones to crash

and a jaw-dropping view to take their breath away.

Today I'm lucky enough to be in Kaikoura with Ted and Sue, helping them find their perfect home.

They're certainly not strangers to the area, having had a bach here in the past,

so they know just how special this town is.

This is like you've died and gone to heaven.

- Come with us as I show our couple three stunning properties,

all with their own charm and, of course, unbeatable views.

- There is a wall space for your big TV, Ted.

- I think with a view like this, you wouldn't be watching too much TV.

Oh, you would be.

- We're originally from Otago, and we've been together about 26 years, I'm gonna say, Sue ― isthat right?

Plus or take, yeah, yeah, yeah.

- Get along most of the time pretty well. - Yeah, pretty good actually.

We've still got a bit of a sense of humour.

- There's still plenty of mischief in us, so... - Yeah, love, yeah.

- When I retired two years ago, we just thought we'd move somewhere central.

We chose Canterbury, and we moved into a beautiful subdivision up there.

- It was lovely. - Unfortunately, it was a wee bit like waiting for God.

- Mm. I think it was just too big a transition for us.

- Yeah, we thought we'd move somewhere else, but we weren't quite sure where.

And we were on the road to Picton and come over the Hundalees,

and both looked at each other. - And said, 'Oh, we're putting our house on the market.'

- 'We're moving back to Kaikoura.' - Yeah.

- The people, the scenery, the whole community,

the fishing, the hunting. - Loved it.

The community is really buzzing, and we can see why it's so popular with tourists,

because it is a unique place.

- Just a two-hour drive from Christchurch, the stunning coastal town of Kaikoura

is home to some of the most jaw-dropping scenery in the world.

The town's known for its abundance of marine life and amazing natural landscapes,

and the combination of coastal scenery with a great town centre

offers a really appealing, laid-back lifestyle.

Whether it's the sparkling Pacific Ocean or the snow-capped mountains,

Ted and Sue definitely won't be running out of amazing views here.

It's time to show Ted and Sue the first house I've lined up,

and I think they are gonna be blown away with what this one has to offer.

Here they are. Sue! - Hi.

- Gidday, Ted. - Nice to meet ya. - Kia ora, Matt.

- I've been looking forward to meeting you two

and getting to come back here to one of my favourite parts of Aotearoa.

Look at Kaikoura turning on an absolute stunner for us for a house-hunt today ― how good isthis?

- Absolutely amazing. - Amazing place. - Amazing.

Beautiful. - Kaikoura is a place that you are quite familiar with, isn't it?

You've had a bach here in the past. - Yeah, we had a batch for about six or eight years.

Beautiful over there, beautiful people, great community, fishing,

cray fishing, mountain biking, hunting ― beautiful. - Yeah.

But now this is the time for you to come back to Kaikoura and call it home.

- Absolutely, yes. - That's what we feel, yeah.

- You're looking for a home that you can relax in, obviously.

We're looking for a place with a good open-plan feel, aren't we?

- Absolutely. It's got to be spacious. - Yeah, yeah.

It's gotta have a good kitchen, good living area, all open-plan, like you said.

- And sea and mountain views ― we're coming here for that, eh? - Absolutely.

- I mean, just look around where we are. - It's gotta happen.

- It'd be a shame not to have a view in this place, wouldn't it?

That brings me to the budget that we're working with today.

- Somewhere in that 1.6 million to 2 million range.

- Yeah. - Yeah.

- Hopefully we can find something that suits the both of you today, I reckon.

- Looking forward to it. - Speaking of which, look where I've bought you to start with today ―

an absolutely spectacular location. This is right next to Scarborough lookout.

So one of the most popular places for tourists to come and take photos would be right nextdoor

to where you'd be living if you bought this place.

The house itself is stunning as well. You're looking at a five-bedroom home split over two levels.

This was originally designed as a bed and breakfast.

How do you feel about the place just looking at it from here?

Oh, it's just crazy good. Yeah.

- Should we get around and have a look?

- Yeah, yeah. - Looking forward to it.

- OK. Welcome in.

So this is the entrance way, and you can see it was designed

to be a bed and breakfast ― little reception area here.

As I say, it's split-level living, so three bedrooms down here, two bedrooms upstairs.

You could have this entirely as a separate accommodation level.

That's if you were to use it as a bed and breakfast ―

would that be something you would be interested in doing?

- Certainly got its potential. - Yeah.

- Price range might mean that we'd have a bit of income as well. - Yeah. And something todo.

- Yeah, we'd certainly look at that, eh? It would give Ted a reason to get out of bed...

- Yeah. - ... because otherwise, he'd stay in there.

Yeah, yeah.

Should we head upstairs and take a look at where you'd be living? - Definitely.

- Let's head on up after you, Ted. - OK.

- Oh. - Ted.

- Wow. - Wow, look at that, Sue.

- You wanted open-plan living. - Oh...

- How's this for open-plan living? - Speechless. - Yeah.

- The kids will love it, wouldn't they, and the grandkids.

- I think the whole lot will love it.

- Yeah, there's plenty of room for them. - Absolutely, yeah.

You've set the bar really high on this one, Matt. - Yeah.

- That's what we aim to do. - Yeah.

- It's spacious living space, isn't it? Like, a huge lounge here,

into to your dining room and a great kitchen with a view.

I've never seen a view like that from a kitchen.

- Mind-blowing, absolutely mind-blowing.

- I think I'll be good for the dishes.

- You'll love it in there. - I love it.

- Look at all the toe space for ya. - Oh, absolutely.

- They have just thought of everything really in here

The picture window's take in that incredible sea view.

So far, so good, huh? - Very good. - To good actually.

- It's very, very good. - Yeah. - Yeah.

- Enjoy the rest of the space. - Yes.

- I'm gonna be outside when you're done.

Come and find me, and we'll chat. - OK. Sounds good.

- All right. See you in a bit. - OK, thank you. - Thank you.

- Wow. Look at this, Sue. - Oh my goodness.

- Look at the view out there. - Oh, imagine waking up to that. - Beautiful.

- That's got to be a Californian king-size.

- You can just text me when you want me. - OK.

- It's very well done, isn't it? - Beautiful.

What about the bathroom, the en suite?

- Mm, looks very good, especially with the bath in there, eh?

- Wow. - I wanted to bring you down here

because looking back at that home from here... - Yeah.

- ...and just appreciate the view. - Wow.

- That looks stunning, doesn't it? - It's breathtaking.

- The garden, that's the cherry on top for me. This is beyond beautiful. It's so established.

- 3000m2 of the property, so it's a decent-sized section. - It is a good size.

- You can really take pride in the gardens here.

And you'd be busy, wouldn't you? You'd be absolutely all-year-round busy.

What do you think this house would be worth?

- I think it's over 2 million. - I would say about 2.1.

- So 2.2, so it is stretching it. - Oh, 2.2, OK.

- It's certainly at our upper level, but it's just comfortable living.

- Yeah, comfortable. - The size of the kitchen and the open plan.

- Yeah, the views ― what can you say?

- Views are absolutely outrageous.

- That is only the first house of three. I've got some other tricks up my sleeve today.

So let's head off to house number two.

- OK, looking forward to it. - Great.

- Well, what a truly breathtaking start to our house-hunt today.

I know it's gonna be pretty hard to top those views,

but just wait until you see the two other stunners I've got in store for Ted and Sue.

- Today I'm helping Ted and Sue find the perfect house for their big move back to Kaikoura.

We had a really strong start with house number one,

which had the option for a B&B, as well as those outrageous views ―

but will I be able to top it with this next option?

Alrighty. House number two.

Now, you know Kaikoura. You know the area. You had a bach here. - Yes.

So you'll know that this suburb's are really desirable. - The area.

- A great location too. - Yeah.

And it's a beautiful home. We've got around about a 14-year-old build.

What do you think so far? - Oh.

- Good street appeal, Matt. - It's a statement.

- Yeah. - Yeah. - It's a real good statement.

- So this is a four bedroom. There are ways you could turn this into a B&B as well.

There's ways you could set it up. There's external access to some of the bedrooms

that would mean you would have the option in this property as well.

Shall we go and have a look? - Yeah, yeah. - Let's do it.

Oh wow, Sue, look at this.

- Look at out there. Look.

This amazing, isn't it? - It's beautiful.

- Yeah, I knew that would be your reaction walking in here ― how breathtaking is this view?

- How amazing. - I thought that first one was a hard act to follow,

- but you followed it up all right. - Yeah, you sure have.

With a coastline like that, having a home like this designed just to absolutely soak it in.

Yes. - Everywhere you look, it's just― it's stunning, isn't it?

- Yes. - A really stylish, modern home, a modern feel to this one.

Open plan, so modern kitchen, the lounge right next to it, dining areas.

- The quality of it, the finish of it, the countersunk sinks, the whole kitchen was very welldone,

and of course, you're working with a view like this. - Yeah.

- What else could you ask for? Absolutely. - It's 11 out of 10.

There is a wall space for your big TV, Ted.

- Yeah, that is a good size TV that one, isn't it? - That is a good size, yeah.

- I think with a view like this, you wouldn't be watching too much TV.

Oh, you would be.

- I'm gonna leave you two to have a good look around this place.

I'll be outside when you're done. Come and find me.

- OK, thanks. - See you in a bit. - Thanks, Matt.

- Here's another view. Look at the mountains this time. - Oh, look at that.

The only thing for me is that I'm not used to rooftops.

- No, it is a wee bit sort of closer to the neighbours than we used to. - Of course that's part of it.

But saying that, you still feel very private here.

- Own balcony, lying in bed, looking out at it.

- Will you bring me breakfast in bed.

- Every morning. - I'll hold you to it.

- It's a nice house, isn't it? - It is. - Oh, Fantastic.

- Just been enjoying hanging out here by the pond as well. Yeah.

- How's the serenity, eh? - Yeah, that's beautiful.

For me, there's not a lot of garden. - Well, on that note, yes,

this particular house is on a section of about just a quarter acre,

but with that, there's also a section that would come with it just over the fence there.

So maybe you could start a garden from scratch,

have a full market garden. - Oh wow!

- The extra section, we would never be built out. - No, that's right.

- In this beautiful place, you're not going to get something in front of it,

and, yes, it just gives us options.

- With all that in mind... - Yes. - ...what do you think it's worth?

- 2. 1.8? - I'm sort of around that 1.8. Yeah, 1.8, 1.850.

- Sue's got it this time. - Oh, right, really? - 2.

- Yeah. 1.8, 2. I can see that - About the $2 million mark. - I can see why.

- Once again, it's right up there. - Yeah, it's gonna be right up there all right,

especially with that section. - And we can see what is that price.

- And the views for that location as well

and this whole subdivision, nah, it looks very good. - Yeah.

- Very good. - I think, yeah, it's certainly got that potential.

- With the bedrooms downstairs, it has got a potential

for maybe an income in that direction because it's separated.

- Yes. I only think it's not as good a potential, because it's not like

they've got sea views from their windows and so forth,

but saying that, the positive is that it's a walk to town.

- Well, that's right. - So people might like it for that reason.

It's something really to seriously think about.

- Well, that's two options that you have to think about so far. - I know.

- Shall we go for the home run... - Yes.

- ...and see if the third one works as well.

- I mean, gosh, I don't know how you can top it off, Matt.

- Well, that's two from two. I'm making this a tough choice

for Ted and Sue with these homes in Kaikoura.

Stay with us, because we still have one more home to see.

It's more of a modern option, but it's perfectly located for complete tranquillity.

But before we do, I'm stopping in to the Hapuku Kitchen to find out why Kaikoura is such a foodiewonderland.

- I'm taking a little break from all the house-hunting around Kaikoura to stop into the HapukuKitchen,

where I'll chat to Fiona about why the food around here is some of the freshest you'll find.

Kia ora, Fiona. - Kia ora. Welcome to Hapuku Kitchen.

- Thank you so much for having me. What an amazing place you've got here.

- Thank you.

- Tell me a little bit about the inspiration behind Hapuku Kitchen.

- We really wanted to be closer to nature in terms of where our food is coming from.

We really wanted to reconnect to the land and sea,

and so we decided to make a bit of a move from the big city in Wellington,

settled on Kaikoura as a really great place because, you know, we've got mountains on one side,

we've got sea on the other, and this amazing strip of fertile land with all sorts of wildproduce.

- Not only can you come for a lunch or for a dinner,

but you can also learn to cook and learn about the ingredients you can use here as well.

- Yeah, exactly. So, there's all sorts of things that we offer here.

I guess our core experiences are our hands-on cooking classes.

We have the opportunity to take people out on to the property.

They can pick all of the produce and bring it back,

and then together, we create a feast ― so everyone gets stuck in.

There's something in it for everyone.

- I can't think of many other places that are more

of a perfect kind of a pantry, really, than what Kaikoura is

with the kai moana and everything you've got access to on the land as well.

- We really settled on Kaikoura because of that amazing foraging and growing potential.

We also raise pigs, cows, chickens, ducks, and then we've got vegetable garden.

Kaikoura's a place where you can do all those sorts of things. - Yeah.

- It's nice to have a small community that is very together,

and that flows right through every part of this community.

- It's time now for house number three.

It's more of a modern style than the first two, so let's see what Ted and Sue think of this one.

Righty-ho, lucky last, third and final option ― house number three.

I reckon this one's a belter.

We've got a really modern home, but it's set in this beautiful bush

surrounding a really quiet, tranquil home, contemporary and stylish.

So what do you think of the look of this house?

- I quite like the black. - The timber. - Yeah, with the contrasting timber.

- It really fits into all the area, doesn't it? - It's really quite special.

- Got a funny feeling you're gonna fall in love with this place.

So, let's get inside. - OK.

- Here we are. - Hm. - Wow.

- Yeah. Third home, our third open-plan living area as well.

The owner is actually a builder himself.

So obviously, whenever that happens, you know that there's been a lot of attention to detail.

Everything's been done to a really high spec.

You can see the beautiful features here,

appliances. Oh, it's beautiful.

I love it, actually. - Yeah.

- Good kitchen, just see all the grandkids lined up there, Sue, look. - Yeah, five. We needone more.

Oh. Whoa.

- So we're west-facing right now. So imagine those evenings with the fire on, sun just setting behind

the mountains over there, as you walk out on to the deck to enjoy a glass of wine before bed.

Not far to stumble back into bed.

- You've got the main bedroom down this end of the house,

and you've got two guest bedrooms down that end of the house.

So why don't you go and have a look down there, have a good look around and get to know it,

and once you're done, I'll be outside, and We can talk about the price.

- Awesome. - Thanks, Matt.

- This is beautiful. - Yeah, look at it. Look at the outlook you've got here.

- It is quite secluded, isn't it? - Yeah, really spacious too, isn't it?

You can tell that it's well-loved, isn't it?

It's been built with... - Yeah. Nice, clean lines, isn't it? - ...great care. Yeah, yeah.

- Hello. - Hello. - It's a great house, isn't it?

- Oh, it's beautiful. - It's beautiful.

- I really like a couple of features of the outdoors ― the outdoor fireplace is great,

and then, of course, I'm not sure if you've noticed... - Mm.

- ...an outdoor bath. - Yeah, no, I can see that,

and I can see Ted bringing out me a wee wine just wearing his apron only.

Yeah.

- I just love this, and I can see the grandkids loving the adventurous section. It is amazing.

- And it's handy to the... - Oh, the golf course. - Yeah.

- Ted does play a bit of golf. - Wow.

What do you think it's worth? - I'm thinking it's 1.55-ish. - Mm-hm.

- I'm thinking sort of around the 1.4.

- Well, Ted's on the money for this one. - Oh, right.

So they're looking at offers from 1.4 and above, so... - Oh, that seems good.

- ...reasonable considering what you get.

- You can tell it was done by a builder, can't ya, and he's the owner of the house

It looks really, really good.

Could we live in a house like that?

It's not what I'm used to, but the location is good.

- Yeah, I think it's been a pretty successful day of house-hunting with Ted and Sue.

I'm making it a difficult choice for them, as they fell in love with all of the options that wevisited.

I'm really interested to see which house they'll choose.

After giving a couple some thinking time, I'm really excited to be meeting up with them again,

and I'm keen to hear about their decision.

- Sue, Ted, how are you? - Hi, Matt. - Good to see you again.

- Great to see you guys. - Oh, we said it at the same time. - Ah, you're on the same pagetoday.

We had such a good time heading around... - We sure did.

...and looking at those three amazing houses. - Fantastic.

- We've got to find out which decision you've made. - OK.

- So before I find out, let's find out what you thought about each house.

So the first house, obviously, it was up on the hill by the lookout,

incredible views and a really interesting prospect

with the Airbnb setup downstairs with the home upstairs.

- It actually had everything we had on out wishlist. - Everything, big open-plan living.

The potential to run it as an Airbnb, that's what we've got to look at.

- House number two ― again, a really nice home. - Beautiful views.

- Beautiful views. - And so close to town. - Yeah.

- I didn't think, Matt, that you could line one up the same as you did the first one, but youdid.

Yeah. It was fantastic.

Yeah. - Absolutely, yeah.

- It was lovely with the sections, like thinking you can't get built out.

It was a big thing for us, too, was to have privacy.

- Third home ― another great option... - Yes.

- ...different from the first to in it's style... - Yes.

- ...a lot more modern, really new home.

- It was so different than the first two you showed us. - Yeah.

- The mountain and sea views, we were sort of hooked on that, really.

I love the veneer of it, the look of it, the setting in the bush, the seclusion of it.

- But you did manage to reach some sort of a consensus between the two of you.

You've got a decision for me. - Yep.

- Who's going to reveal it? - I think we'll do it together. - OK. OK, let's do it together.

Number one. - One.

You were a bit late.

- Number one, the people that designed it... Yeah.

- ...the work they've put in on the gardens and the stone walls. - Yeah.

- And the location ― close to the lookout. - Yeah.

The big thing for us too, though, Matt, was the income opportunity... - Right, yeah.

- ...and that's what we're going to pursue.

- So you're going to have lots of visitors coming through your house. - Well, we hope so.

- Honestly, if your guests have half as much fun staying with you

as I've had hanging out with you over the last wee while, then they're in for a good time.

Well, here's to you two. - Cheers, Matt.

- Thank you very much. - All the very best.

- Cheers.

- Well, a big congratulations to Ted and Sue on picking their new amazing home with those unbelievable views.

Wishing you all the best for the B&B, and I can't wait to pop over next time I'm in town.

Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air.

www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2023