LIFESTYLE
A c o m f r ey setting W R I TT E N BY S H A RO N ST E P H E N S O N P H OTO G R A P H Y BY S I M O N N E A L E
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rive past the Otaki shops and take a right off State Highway One. Meander past paddocks thick with daffodils and a driveway lined with gum trees like sentinels, where you’ll probably have to circumnavigate the odd chicken. It’s here you’ll find the home of Alexis Murti. The two-acre setting makes perfect sense when you meet the cheese-maker whose company Curious Cook runs cheese-and pasta-making workshops around the lower North Island. If it all sounds very Good Life, that’s because it is. Alexis and her husband Raj bought the rural property almost 10 years ago, pursuing their desire to live as sustainably as possible. They arrived with son Levi (now 9), and Elijah (7) joined the family soon after. The couple were from Wellington, but couldn’t find a large rural property close to the capital that fit their budget. So they widened their search. ‘Raj’s sister lived in Otaki so we had some connection to the area,’ says Alexis. ‘But it didn’t bother us that we had to move out of
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Wellington if it meant we could live the way we wanted to.’ For Alexis, that involved recreating the childhood she’d enjoyed on a lifestyle block out the back of Wainuiomata, where she and her two younger sisters and brother had roamed free, camped out and were as energetic as they liked. ‘We wanted our kids to have that same experience,’ says Raj, who was born in Fiji but moved with his family to Khandallah when he was 13. The couple were drawn to this property by the four paddocks and the fact that the previous owners had renovated the fourbedroom villa. ‘It meant that we didn’t have to do much to the house, although I had big plans for the land because the reason for moving here was to become more self-sufficient and give back to the land, while giving our children the benefit of a country lifestyle,’ says Alexis. The couple met in 2001 when they both worked for Telecom (now Spark ) – Alexis in sales, Raj in finance – before moving