On having a bach

When I say to people ‘I have a bach’, I feel like I sound like a rich person. Usually people who have bach’s are in a financially stable position. Once you’ve got your house, you’ve paid the mortgage down a bit, you get a boat and then you go ‘I think we might need a bach’. That’s not how our family came to have a bach.

After a couple of robberies in the family home in Longburn road, Henderson, my Grandparents (with help) decided to move out of the big smoke and out to the country. They bought a section in Whakapirau with a little house on it, put some serious gardens in and really enjoyed their retirement. Whakapirau is a very isolated place on one of the many inlets of the Kaipara Harbour.The closest township is Maungaturoto. It takes us just over two hours to drive up there from our place in Pt Chev.

My grandfather passed away from cancer in 2002. With help from Hospice, we nursed him at home in Whakapirau for the last few weeks of his life. All of his children and grandchildren were there when he passed. His gravestone is in the cemetery by the little Anglican church, just up the hill from the house. It is still the newest gravestone there, and it is not like any gravestone you’ve ever seen.

Living there alone was very hard for my Grandma. Although she has good friends in Whakapirau, it is pretty far away from her family. When Grandma decided she needed to move back to Auckland to be closer to us all we understood, but we didn’t want to leave Granddad alone up there.

Ideas of forming a family trust to buy the house from Grandma were discussed and decided on. I saw some pretty fiery outbursts at some of those meetings (mostly my mum). Ideas around financing this meant compromise and a real reality check. Many ideas were floated. Not everyone in our family joined the trust – for some it wasn’t financially viable. It meant collectively paying the mortgage on the house which, although initially purchased for $60,000 was now valued at $300,000. We also had to get bank loans, so that we could renovate – the plan being that we could rent it out over Summer to help pay the mortgage. Major renovations are almost finished now.

I am the only person in my generation in the trust. I only have a half share, but I like to think it helps out. I have paid that share over the last many years regardless of my financial status. I’ve paid it when I was on the unemployment benefit, and paying it meant I had only $15 a week for food. It is (obviously) not something ever disclosed when filling out financial forms. WINZ see it as an ‘Asset’, Banks will see it as something to help solidify a mortgage. It can be neither of these things. My mum earns just over minimum wage, and has never owned a house. But she pays a full share in the family bach. For many in the trust, having the bach is not easy. There are a few who pull the lions share with renovations and work on the property. It's a lot of work. Keeping that house in the family is very important to us all.

For the last three years I’ve worked at least one day on the weekend. And Murray (my husband) has had different days off than I have. This has made it very difficult for us to go up there. Going up for a couple of days this week is the first time we’ve been able to go up and stay there properly in over two years. Logically, it doesn’t seem like much time for the investment made.

But when you’re up there, you read the ‘guest book’ we have up there and it makes you happy. So many people in our family use this bach as an oasis. It’s a halfway house between other places further North. It’s a gap between parties. It’s a rest for a mum from the kids for a bit. It’s a wharau – a temporary resting place. We spent our few days up there watching DVD’s, finding treasures in the old VHS collection like a series of MASH. We played board games. We ate junk food. I cooked fantastic, lengthy meals. We drank wine. We had a spa bath. We visited my Granddad. And we felt like very rich people.