In a world obsessed with speed, status, and screens, it’s easy to forget the quiet pleasure of simplicity, the joy that comes not from having more, but from needing less. For Judy and me, that realisation became the foundation of a life that was both humbler and infinitely richer than the one we left behind.
Our story, told in “The Tiny Vineyard That Defied the Odds”, doesn’t begin with comfort or luxury. It begins with two people walking away from the familiar, trading stable jobs and predictable routines for a rundown 9.2-hectare patch of land in New Zealand’s Waimata Valley, near Gisborne. We weren’t chasing success. We were searching for peace, and, somewhere along the way, we found purpose.
The Courage to Choose a Simpler Life
It takes a particular kind of bravery to walk away from the world’s idea of success. I’d spent years in the corporate side of agricultural science, bound to the rhythm of meetings, deadlines, and fluorescent lighting. Judy, a horticulturalist, ever the optimist with soil under her fingernails, longed for something real, a life measured by seasons rather than schedules.
When we first stood on that overgrown property, it was hard to see beyond the weeds and broken fences. But beneath the tangle of neglect was something priceless: the chance to start again, to live deliberately, and to build a life with meaning rather than momentum.
Choosing simplicity wasn’t an escape. It was a return, to the things that matter.
Rediscovering Joy in the Everyday
As we began restoring the land, our pace naturally slowed. Days were filled with digging, planting, mending, and the occasional improvisation that passed for engineering. There was satisfaction in every small task, even the blisters felt earned.
We learned to notice the details again: the morning mist rolling over the vines, the hum of cicadas on a warm afternoon, the slow unfurling of new leaves after rain. Somewhere between the mud, laughter, and occasional mishap, we discovered that contentment doesn’t come from perfection. It comes from presence.
Modern life teaches us to chase, but the land teaches us to pause. When we finally slowed down, gratitude had space to take root.
The Land as a Teacher
Living close to nature quickly reminds you who’s in charge, and it definitely isn’t you. Some seasons offered abundance; others delivered frosts, rain, birds, or insect pests with remarkable enthusiasm. Yet through every setback, the land taught us the same quiet lesson: control is an illusion, but harmony is possible.
Once we stopped trying to outsmart nature and started listening to her instead, things began to change. Our organic approach became more than a method; it became a way of thinking. Nurture the soil, and it will nurture you. Take only what you need, and the land will keep giving.
It’s a philosophy that served us far beyond farming.
Freedom in Letting Go
After twenty-six remarkable years, we sold Tiritiri Estate in 2014. Yet it never felt like goodbye. We didn’t leave with wealth, but with something far greater, the deep contentment of a life lived honestly, close to the earth, and shared with our two sons.
Raising Jack and Tim on the farm was our finest harvest. The land gave them resilience, curiosity, and a quiet faith in their own hands. It shaped who they are, grounded, capable, and kind, and left us with the comforting sense that, in nurturing the soil, we had helped nurture them too.
Simplicity, we realised, isn’t about doing less, it’s about doing what matters most. It’s the quiet pride of a day’s work, the beauty of a shared meal, the calm of a sunset earned.
Our story asks a simple question: what truly makes a life well lived? Is it what we own, or what we notice? Is it what we build, or how we build it?
Takeaway
“The Tiny Vineyard That Defied the Odds” is, in many ways, a love letter to simplicity, to the laughter, resilience, and deep satisfaction that come from living close to the land.
It reminds us that the good life isn’t complicated. It’s simply lived, with purpose, patience, and heart.
Let our story inspire you to slow down, dig in, and rediscover what truly matters.
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