- 25/05/2025
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FunTranscript
00:00Autumn is a time of change and loss, the change of season and temperature, the loss of leaves
00:10and daylight, and we feel that loss all winter, but we know that come the springtime we'll
00:18get it all back.
00:22Now there are some things that we lose that can't be replaced, no matter how hard we try,
00:28so much can be to a certain extent, and so the question is, how far would you go to replace
00:35something you've lost?
00:37A house for instance, not just the bricks and mortar, but the life, the memories, the
00:41lifestyle, all of it.
00:44How long could that take?
00:46How much could that cost?
00:47Not just the money, but the emotional investment, the physical effort.
00:52Could you do that?
00:54Should you even try?
00:58How far could you go?
01:02How far could you go?
01:06How far could you go?
01:10How far could you go?
01:13How far could you go?
01:21Lake Orho is a long way from anywhere.
01:25Secluded beneath the southern Alps, three hours drive from Queenstown, four hours from
01:31Christchurch, the climate here is extreme.
01:36Fiercely hot and dry in summer, brutally cold in winter.
01:48Look out.
01:49In the water.
01:51Artist Janet Muir and builder Richard Brown, brownie to his mates, discovered the lake
01:57and its small village in late 2004.
02:00They didn't have children at that stage, but were looking for a special place to holiday
02:04with family and friends.
02:09We just came over that hill, and I just was like, wow, this is just amazing.
02:15Ticked all the boxes, hit a lake, hit a mountains.
02:18I was sold.
02:22The attraction was so strong that the couple made a bold decision.
02:26They bought a section in tiny Lake Orho village, and in late 2006, they moved out of their
02:32Auckland rental and into a caravan on the site.
02:36I was pregnant, so you know, of course that's a terrible time to start building, especially
02:40living in a caravan.
02:42I think the locals had a bit of a fright.
02:44They didn't know what had happened.
02:45We were like trailer trash.
02:46We just drove in and hitched up our caravan.
02:48Pregnant.
02:49A hillbilly.
02:53I mean, I'm glad we did it, because if we'd known what we were launching ourselves into,
02:56we would never have done it.
02:59Three years and two children later, their house was complete, and it would become a
03:04place of good times and great memories, shared with whānau and friends.
03:09The house was built without a heart, and I think you felt it as soon as you walked into
03:13it.
03:14You know, you could feel it was a beautiful home.
03:18However, this is an extreme alpine location, and often buffeted by severe winds.
03:23On one October night in 2020, life descended into a nightmare.
03:29Janet said, oh look, there's lightning.
03:34That gave me a fright.
03:35A big flash of lightning.
03:38I'm waiting for the rain to come, and there's no thunder and there's no rain.
03:44I didn't know at the time, but it was, you know, arcing power lines.
03:55The siren, I knew what that meant.
03:57It meant fire.
03:58I just went, oh my god, here we go.
04:04I knew that we had to get out really quickly.
04:07Banged on all the doors.
04:08We had eight people in the house, so...
04:11Yeah, we just ran.
04:15We thought we were coming back.
04:17You know, we'll be back in a few hours, this will blow through.
04:22Just as we were going over the brow of the hill, looking back into the village,
04:26and I said, oh my god, the fire is in the village.
04:35The fire, fanned by those winds, took nine days to put out.
04:39And left a path of total devastation.
04:4248 homes and buildings destroyed, more than 5,000 hectares of land damaged.
04:47Incredibly, there was no loss of life, but plenty of heartbreak.
04:53Going back to the house was like saying goodbye to my old friend.
04:57It's like a body.
05:00Just lay there.
05:06There's nothing left.
05:10It was our home.
05:12It's not bricks and mortar, it's the memories.
05:17The birthdays we had there, and the friends we had around the dining room table.
05:22The parties we had.
05:26And the fact that everyone helped us build it.
05:29You have all those memories.
05:31And that's what's the hard thing.
05:34It's not the stuff.
05:36It's the home.
05:39For some Ohau village residents, it was all too much, and many moved away.
05:43But Janet and Brownie are dead set on rebuilding and moving forward.
05:49We're so lucky no one died.
05:51You can't bring people back.
05:53But for us, we're bringing a home back.
05:55It's going to be resurrected.
05:57And even better, that's what I hope.
06:00That we're going to be able to do things that we wanted to do the first time around,
06:03that we couldn't afford to do.
06:05Happy birthday to you.
06:09Happy birthday to you.
06:11The Browns now live in Auckland.
06:13But for son Harvey's 14th birthday, the family, plus Janet's mum Anne,
06:18have come down to Ohau and rented a house in the village.
06:23For Harvey and his younger brother William, there's no place they'd rather be.
06:27We get to go skiing, snowboarding, going on sleds, playing in the snow.
06:33I just feel like at home.
06:35Oh, you really have one.
06:37Yeah.
06:38I might take this slither because I'm going to die.
06:42I've got to always remember just how incredibly lucky we were.
06:46And that just keeps me going.
06:48Because I could have lost my children.
06:58Absolutely breathtaking location.
07:02But also quite surreal.
07:04All around are signs of the absolute devastation of six months ago.
07:09Hello. Hi.
07:11Nice to meet you.
07:13Janet, nice to meet you.
07:15Well, so this is you.
07:17A sign over there that tells me this is the Brown house.
07:20But not very much else here.
07:22No.
07:24Total devastation.
07:26The only surviving thing is our picnic table.
07:29Yes.
07:31Here's a little artefact from the fire.
07:33That's our window.
07:35Goodness.
07:36Completely melted.
07:38Yeah.
07:40If we'd left it 10 minutes, we'd be dead, really.
07:42So thank goodness.
07:44Thank goodness for that.
07:46Yeah, we're lucky.
07:48And it was a lovely house.
07:50Beautiful house. It was a beautiful home.
07:52Our view was this, you know, and we would look up to the ski field in the mornings.
07:54I'd always like to be the first one up the mountain if there's a fresh snowfall.
07:57Have a look and then that's it, we're off.
07:59Must be very hard to talk about it.
08:02I'm sorry.
08:04I'm OK. I'm ready to move forward now.
08:06It's been hot and it's been hard, but no, we're good.
08:09We'll have to just try and recreate that again.
08:11Yes, I'm sure you will.
08:13The new house will rise phoenix-like from the ashes of the old.
08:17Largely the same design, but this time protected by a firebreak.
08:20In through the front door and onto a slate floor,
08:23turning right past the shower room, bathroom, second bedroom, master bedroom,
08:28and around to the bunk rooms, one with double bunks and one with singles.
08:32Then onto the toilet and the laundry,
08:33kitted out to handle ski boots and wet weather gear.
08:37Across the corridor there's a concrete fireplace,
08:40warming the whole open-plan living wing,
08:42and a large dining table, a kitchen equipped with two ovens to feed the hordes,
08:47and a kitchen window framing Janet's favourite view to Ben Orho.
08:51The large living room ends with an enticing window seat,
08:55with expansive mountain views.
08:58Bifold doors lead out to the patio,
09:01now fireproof concrete rather than timber decking,
09:04and at high level, no plastic guttering either.
09:07It's all steel this time.
09:09The garden has been completely rethought,
09:12with rocks, hard landscaping and ground cover plants,
09:15instead of flammable grasses and shrubs.
09:18The living wing is a double-height space with exposed timber trusses.
09:22On top the roof is corrugated steel,
09:24and the cladding is charred larch wood,
09:27paying homage to the old house,
09:29and finishing off a home ready for the rebirth of good times and great memories.
09:37A new house coming, tell me about that.
09:40We want to build, you know, better for the future,
09:42and hope that this house stands for our children,
09:45and hopefully their grandchildren.
09:47Sure, and the story of the house grows and changes as your family changes.
09:51Yeah, and we would never have done that if it wasn't for you.
09:54Yeah, if our house hadn't burned down.
09:56So, you know, you have to look at the positives and go,
09:59right, well this time we can make some changes that are going to be good.
10:02Yes, and the build will be a little bit different too, won't it?
10:04We can't build it ourselves now.
10:06Yeah.
10:07We don't have the energy.
10:09And those logistics of getting going again,
10:11you're at a point where you have enough funding for the new build,
10:14from that insurance.
10:16Well.
10:17Yeah, we hope so.
10:18Hope so.
10:19Yeah.
10:20Because that's all we've got.
10:22You know, it has to be.
10:24So it's $946,526.
10:29There you go.
10:30There you go.
10:31I've never heard such an exact answer.
10:33That's it.
10:34Twenty-six cents.
10:35Twenty-six cents, yes.
10:36So that's what we've got to do.
10:38And there's no more than that.
10:39There's no more than that, no.
10:40No.
10:41First time around, three years to build.
10:44This time?
10:46Well, it's a tough question.
10:48In this location.
10:49In this location, you know,
10:50you've got a lot of travel and distance and materials to come in.
10:54We don't.
10:55It pushes what you think would be a normal, you know, snow.
10:58So that's about a year and a half.
10:59A year and a half.
11:00Yeah.
11:01I like the sound of that.
11:06Much like the weather, life changes.
11:09Once on this bare section stood a home,
11:12a place of shelter, safety and love.
11:15How traumatic then for that home to be erased so violently
11:18and completely?
11:20Could you start again?
11:22Rebuilding in the same location
11:25with signs of that dramatic fire everywhere?
11:28It's a big ask.
11:30I really hope that Janet and Richard's new journey is kind to them.
11:48Ten months later, at their rented house in Auckland,
11:52a demoralised Janet and Brownie are dealing with the double whammy
11:56of COVID and a chronic shortage of building materials.
12:01The prices of everything has gone up, what, 25%
12:05since the house burnt down?
12:07We've got a cut down on labour costs,
12:09so you and I are going to be heading down there to do jobs, no doubt.
12:14The bottom line is,
12:15the new house can no longer be built
12:18for the amount of the insurance payout.
12:20So it's back to the drawing board, literally.
12:23It's a real challenge
12:25because our business came to a grinding halt.
12:28And so there was one point where we thought,
12:31well, we've lost the house again.
12:33And then with the hiking prices,
12:35it's a constant, like, how are we going to build this house?
12:38And yeah, like I said,
12:40we're going to be ending up flying down there to paint the house
12:42and ringing up old friends going,
12:44hey, you know, can you come back and plaster for us again?
12:48Second time around.
12:50You get a holiday and we'll feed you.
12:54Last time out, self-building might have been hard,
12:58but this time it's looking even harder.
13:00Rather than gaining extras,
13:02they'll have to face up to a reduced redesign
13:05while finding the strength and resolve to go on.
13:09It's really hard to even talk about it.
13:10It's like, you know, my children were born there
13:14and I just can't turn my back on it.
13:16You know, I mean, I think that's it.
13:18I just cannot turn my back on that house.
13:20Yeah, it is such a big part of us, of who we are.
13:25Our biggest thing is we don't,
13:27we do not want to have to go to the bank and get a mortgage.
13:29You know, we were almost mortgage-free
13:31when our house burnt down.
13:33We do not want to have to get another mortgage.
13:35That would just kill us.
13:41Spring 2023 at Lake Orho,
13:44and finally some action on Brownie and Janet's site
13:47with the first concrete pour.
13:50It's now a full three years
13:52since fire destroyed their first house here,
13:55and while they had hoped to rebuild it pretty much exactly,
13:59those plans have been scuttled by the fire.
14:02They've had to rebuild it again,
14:04and they've had to rebuild it again,
14:06and they've had to rebuild it again,
14:07and while they had hoped to rebuild it exactly,
14:09those plans have been scuttled
14:11by the soaring cost of construction.
14:13We went through three different redesigns.
14:15It's basically what's taken so long.
14:17I think we've broken the back of it.
14:19We've made a few changes to the inside
14:21and to the shape of the building,
14:23but the footprint still remains pretty much the same.
14:30Janet and sons Harvey and William are staying in Auckland,
14:33where the boys go to school.
14:35Brownie is renting at Orho
14:37to keep the site here,
14:39while running his and Janet's
14:41Auckland-based building company as well.
14:43The build's well and truly underway now.
14:45We'll be in there soon.
14:48I always knew we'd get there,
14:50but when was the question.
14:52There were times we thought we wouldn't.
14:55It's three years now.
14:57It's a long time.
14:59It's a tribute to Brownie and Janet's tenacity
15:01that the build has started at all.
15:04But maybe there's something in the ground here,
15:07because there's another Against the Odds story.
15:13When we first arrived here,
15:15my mother died and my first son was born,
15:17and mum wanted to be buried with our first child.
15:20And so we put the placenta in the ashes under this tree.
15:23But then, of course, the fire took it out.
15:25And so when I came back here,
15:27I said, oh, wow, I wonder if that's our old tree.
15:30Had a closer look at it, and it was.
15:32It's the only thing that survived, yeah.
15:33The resilience of the little crabapple tree
15:36has to be a good omen.
15:38There's no shortage of focus and belief as the build begins,
15:41but a little extra inspiration never goes amiss.
15:54The redesign that allowed building to begin
15:57is the work of award-winning Auckland architect Lisa Webb,
16:00a long-time friend of John Brownie's.
16:03Lisa also designed the house that burnt down.
16:06That, I can see, was a real delight.
16:09These are lovely photos, Lisa.
16:11The house that was.
16:13And is no more.
16:15No, yes.
16:17Janet and Brownie put so much love and care and effort into it,
16:20and so much of themselves,
16:22and people really responded to that.
16:24You know, people, you know,
16:26genuinely seem to really love staying there,
16:28and obviously it's a beautiful environment,
16:30but it was also a very, you know,
16:31thoughtful, lovely sort of place to be in and to stay in.
16:35It means a lot to many different people.
16:37Yeah, exactly.
16:39I mean, everything that you see in the photos, they built.
16:44With the original house now too expensive to recreate,
16:47Lisa had to come up with a less expensive version,
16:50one that was also quicker and easier to build.
16:53One option was to basically build something and truck it to site,
16:57and then we started looking at facilities
16:59and then we started looking at six panels as a solution.
17:03So that's an insulated panel, rigid insulation,
17:06strambled on the outside, there's your wall.
17:09Yeah, exactly.
17:11It's like a 3D jigsaw puzzle, like you get these,
17:13as far as I can sort of see, you kind of get these pieces on site
17:16and you just click them together.
17:18So obviously as soon as you get prefabricated pieces
17:21that can be put together on site, you're saving on labour time.
17:26What they've lost is the garage rumpus room.
17:29It's completely gone, but they've actually gained living space
17:33by redesigning the roof and putting in a mezzanine floor
17:36for overflow guest accommodation.
17:38Yeah, and then the other thing is,
17:40rather than cladding the whole thing in timber,
17:42we're cladding it in corrugate.
17:44So it's the opposite brief really to the brief for the first house.
17:48The brief for the first house was around,
17:50we have to do it all ourselves, everything has to be handmade.
17:53Right.
17:55So there was no prefabrication.
17:56So it's gone from one sort of extreme to the other.
18:00In theory, structural insulated panels, SIPs for short,
18:04do just click together.
18:06Although it may not be quite that easy
18:09if you haven't built with them before.
18:11Using them should, however, reduce the amount of labour
18:14required in this very remote location.
18:20A month into the build,
18:22the team is making final preparations for the panels to arrive
18:24and checking that the concrete pad they'll land on
18:27is completely level.
18:29Brownie has chosen Richards
18:31from his and Janet's Auckland construction company
18:34as lead builder,
18:36and he's brought in his two sons, Soni and Samisi.
18:41This is the first time the builders and Brownie have used SIPs
18:45and hope they'll be a big part of staying on budget.
18:48But they won't replace all the basics of building.
18:50The carpentry discipline still applies.
18:53You've still got to get it level and plumb and all that.
18:57It's intended to go up real quick.
19:00Once we put it in, we are ready to clad pretty much.
19:09Keenly watching the build
19:11are close neighbours and friends, Chris and Ray Spears.
19:14The couple met Brownie and Janet in their very early days here
19:17and gave them a helping hand when they really needed one.
19:22We decided that it was too damn cold for them to be in that caravan
19:28with a brand new baby.
19:30We were lucky enough to be able to offer them accommodation
19:35which they lovingly accepted and moved in
19:39and they just became part of the family.
19:42Janet's my second daughter.
19:43Ray and Chris also lost their house in the fire
19:46but were able to move into a small relocatable home
19:49placed on family land elsewhere in Orho Village.
19:53Like Brownie and Janet, they're looking forward to starting again.
19:58We thought we were at the end before, but now it's starting all over again.
20:02And there's a really good feeling amongst the community now.
20:06And it's going to be nice.
20:08The boys are growing up.
20:09And they'll be bringing their mates.
20:11And no doubt we'll get a phone call,
20:13the boys are down, just keep an eye on things, I would say.
20:25Richens and his team made short work of getting the internal framing up
20:29and now the sips can go in to form the walls.
20:32However...
20:34In Tereo, Orho can be translated as windy place
20:39and indeed regularly gets blasted from all directions.
20:43Not good for lifting unwieldy sips into place.
20:47Not good at all.
20:49They like big sails.
20:51And so once the wind gets those and they're off,
20:54we're out in the open.
20:56It's a bit of a challenge.
20:58It's a bit of a challenge.
20:59They like big sails.
21:01And so once the wind gets those and they're off,
21:03we're out picking them up out of the lake.
21:06So that's our biggest issue we face.
21:10So while the hope is using the sips will keep the house on budget,
21:14remember that the team have never built with them before
21:17and the panels are proving difficult to install and potentially dangerous
21:21as Orho very much lives up to its name.
21:30At Lake Orho, with the spring weather so changeable,
21:34the team has to take full advantage of any fine still conditions
21:39to install the sips that form the walls of the new house.
21:43It is a lot quicker to do it this way.
21:46It's just some things we can't control
21:49and as we get higher, the wind gets a little bit shaky
21:52so we have to pick our days now.
21:55It's hard to do it this way.
21:56So we have to pick our days now.
21:58It's hard to focus when the wind's blowing everything around.
22:02So it's been tricky, but it's been fulfilling.
22:08We're going through a learning curve, but the product's good, you know.
22:12And once it's up, then we've got our inside done as well.
22:15Normally you might have a jib board or you paint it or something.
22:18We're just going to leave that.
22:20The polystyrene is the insulation,
22:23so that cuts a lot of time out for us.
22:27But the challenges of building first time with sips,
22:31plus the often extreme conditions,
22:34are not the only things the team has to deal with.
22:36Shortages of materials and the remote location
22:39are regularly disrupting the building schedule.
22:43We're a shorter bit of steel, as it turns out now.
22:46So without the steel, it all grinds to a halt.
22:48You can't say, oh, can you just show up tomorrow?
22:50It might be another week out.
22:53So you lose that time.
22:57For me, it's really frustrating.
23:00I wanted to get the place closed in as soon as possible,
23:04but because we can't get the roof on, we can't get the walls up,
23:07they can't measure the last windows,
23:09it all, you know, snowballs.
23:13It's either laugh or cry.
23:27In Auckland, Janet's got her own challenges,
23:30looking after the couple's two sons
23:32and helping Brownie run their construction company.
23:35Plus, she's got an exhibition coming up soon
23:38and is still working on the centrepiece painting.
23:41Hey, I don't want to disturb an artist at work, but hello.
23:45How are you?
23:46Very good.
23:47Good, good.
23:48This is incredible.
23:50But what does it mean?
23:52It's called Night Flight because, I mean,
23:53I've thought about it over the years since the house burnt down,
23:56about, you know, why birds fly at night,
23:59and there's two reasons.
24:01They're either migrating or they're fleeing from some danger,
24:04and their goal is to survive.
24:07So down here I've got the childhood memories,
24:10the buttercups, the daisy chains, the sparrows making nests,
24:14and you work your way up.
24:16And that is our little house that we had, and that's burning.
24:20So, I mean, everyone always thinks it's going to happen to someone else
24:23in another backyard, not their own,
24:25but as we experienced, well, we had to flee our own backyard.
24:29So that symbolises the escape, the great escape.
24:32Yes.
24:33And they fly up, up into the mountains, and that's the kia.
24:36So there's a sense of, you know, you've escaped
24:39and you've found freedom and you have a guardian above you.
24:41Right.
24:43And on your flight from danger, there are always obstacles.
24:46A week after we got back from the fire,
24:50we had a meeting with our bank,
24:51and they sat us down and they told us
24:54that they were going to take our insurance money
24:57and put it on our business loan,
24:59even though we had serviced that loan and we had never defaulted.
25:03And so a week after we lost our house,
25:06we were losing it again to the bank,
25:09and so we fought them.
25:11And that battle went on for seven months.
25:14It prevented us from getting started.
25:16It's amazing that in a situation where you sort of need the most support,
25:19then that happened.
25:22And it was unnecessary, you know, but thanks to the support we had,
25:26we escaped, we held out,
25:29and the bank actually did concede defeat.
25:36It's a tribute to the couple's tenacity
25:39that the rebuild has survived all the challenges so far.
25:42However, Janet and Brownie are still making sacrifices.
25:46Well, it must be very different, quite hard, I guess,
25:49for both of you being separated,
25:51particularly this first time around, building the house.
25:54It was a team effort, right?
25:56Yeah, that's been the worst thing about the rebuild,
25:59is the separation, actually.
26:01But yeah, I'm glad we stuck on that journey,
26:06because it would have been so easy to not.
26:10Yeah.
26:11And it's taken a lot of determination to just keep at it.
26:16But I think it'll pay off.
26:18For sure.
26:28By late November,
26:30Brownie has managed to get the remaining steel he needs to site
26:33and rebook all the necessary tradespeople.
26:36So, although he's behind on his building schedule,
26:38it's time for another milestone,
26:41the roof going on.
26:47The builders keep a close watch on the weather
26:50and go hard on days the wind is light enough
26:53to crane the panels safely into place.
26:59And they soon discover
27:01that constructing a pitch roof with sips
27:04is not as straightforward as using them as walls.
27:07The beams that they provided are too wide.
27:10This is 150, this is 140.
27:13That's a bugger, eh?
27:16It's not as quick as we had hoped.
27:19They're big panels,
27:21and they're in the air, they're heavy.
27:24The roof's got a slope on it,
27:26and we had an issue with one beam
27:28that wasn't quite the right height,
27:30so we had to readjust that.
27:32We're going to have to take that first one off
27:33and lift this beam up.
27:35It's always the fear of the unknown.
27:37Is that right? Have I done it right?
27:39Is it going to fit?
27:42We know we've got one or two in,
27:44understood the process.
27:46Like anything, it's started to flow.
27:51It's been a big effort for Brownie so far.
27:54Not just the work,
27:56but the separation from his family,
27:58time away from his and Janet's construction business,
28:00and the fact it was never the plan
28:02for him to be so involved in the build anyway.
28:05Considering all of that,
28:07he's doing pretty well,
28:09but he's still pushing hard.
28:11I've set targets for us,
28:13which are really aggressive.
28:16And it's just me.
28:18I'm competitive.
28:21We'll get there.
28:23Time's money.
28:31At Lake Orho,
28:33the new brown house took a long time to get going,
28:36but now is racing ahead.
28:41Work on the roof is going well,
28:44leaving just the windows to be installed
28:46before the house can be closed in.
28:48Brownie wants that done before Christmas,
28:51and anyone with hands and legs has been called to help,
28:55including son Harvey and his mate Marcus.
28:57This stuff sits in the sun,
28:59it all bends and twists.
29:01He's been bossy at times,
29:04but it's a really cool thing
29:06because we're actually a part of the build.
29:08Janet's on site too
29:10with one of her best friends,
29:12architect Lisa.
29:14It's the first time Janet's been back
29:16since the very beginning of the build.
29:18She's also taken the chance
29:20to indulge in a little luxury.
29:22I'm going to have an affordable Japanese soaking tub
29:24in my wet room now,
29:25and I'm pretty excited about that.
29:29So you can sit in the tub
29:31and look out at the mountains.
29:34Good memories.
29:37It's pretty cool.
29:40I'm pretty emotional.
29:42I think I broke down crying.
29:45There were a few tears, for sure.
29:48It felt really good,
29:50indescribably good
29:52to see it out of the ground.
29:56Lisa also has to exorcise
29:58some demons from the past.
30:00The memories of that fateful night
30:02in early October 2020
30:04are still crystal clear.
30:07I was on the Coromandel
30:09and a journalist rang me
30:11and asked my comment about the brown house,
30:13and I knew that you were here,
30:15about the fire.
30:17And my immediate assumption
30:19was they were ringing me because...
30:21Lisa, I didn't know that.
30:23It was terrible.
30:25Thank you for the news.
30:28And we were out of service,
30:30so I couldn't reach the news
30:32or anything like that.
30:34So that was my immediate thought,
30:36was thank God you were alive.
30:40For Janet and Lisa,
30:42this visit has been a revelation.
30:44It's restored their spirits
30:46and, crucially,
30:48confirmed to both owner and architect
30:50that rebuilding was the right thing to do.
30:53And I love it.
30:55I love it.
31:04Home in Auckland,
31:06Janet's been frantically trying to finish
31:08all the artwork for her new exhibition.
31:10And her deadline has just run out.
31:13It's opening night.
31:15It's probably one of the scariest days of my life.
31:18I have been terrified for weeks.
31:21Oh, you look gorgeous.
31:25Janet's exhibition
31:27is entitled Night Flight
31:29after the painting she was working on
31:31when I visited her studio.
31:33It's the centrepiece of the show
31:35and the first painting Janet's completed
31:37since the fire in October 2020.
31:40Hi.
31:42Oh, there's a beautiful blue bellbird.
31:45That orange bellbird's over there.
31:47It feels good.
31:49It feels really, really good.
31:51Like I have actually worked through a lot of stuff,
31:53a lot of anger,
31:55and now I can, you know,
31:57do more painting, which is good.
31:59And yeah, I'm happy.
32:01I'm actually happy, which is great.
32:05I would never have thought
32:07that I could actually
32:09pull something out of what happened
32:11and make it positive.
32:13But now it's like,
32:15I know I'm going to have a home
32:17and that's what's so special.
32:19I'm going to be back in that beautiful place
32:21with my family.
32:23It's a good place to be,
32:25back home.
32:37Into the new year at Lake Orho
32:39and the Brown House build is back on schedule.
32:42Most of the windows are in
32:44and the roofers have just arrived,
32:46so it's all go.
32:48Up.
32:51I'm back too
32:53and very pleased to be.
32:56Now there's progress.
32:58Great to see.
33:00I think it's a really Kiwi thing, isn't it?
33:02The modest house in the vast landscape.
33:04Brilliant.
33:12Hello.
33:14How are you?
33:15Good to see you too.
33:17It's so good to see this,
33:19to be inside a building.
33:21Yeah, well it's good to be in here.
33:23Now this OSB finish,
33:25the inside of those SIPS panels,
33:27will that survive anywhere?
33:29Everywhere.
33:31I love it actually.
33:33The more I'm in it,
33:35the more I love it.
33:37And I'm sanding it,
33:39so that's my job,
33:41I'm the sander,
33:43and it's going to look great.
33:45Could floor-to-ceiling OSB
33:47be a little too much?
33:51We've just got to line these walls,
33:53which we will do with the OSB board.
33:55More OSB.
33:57More OSB board everywhere, yeah.
33:59And no staining on the OSB boards this time?
34:02Just a sealer.
34:04I mean, if we walk in and go,
34:06oh God, this is too much,
34:08then maybe we will do something about it.
34:10I expect the cost of building this house,
34:12like construction all over the country,
34:13will have jumped dramatically in recent years.
34:15And cost cutting,
34:17wherever possible,
34:19has been critical.
34:21And while Brownie and Janet
34:23must be mighty relieved to have got this far,
34:25I wonder what the emotional cost has been,
34:27and still is.
34:29There's the resentment
34:31that we've actually got to go through this process
34:33and rebuild it,
34:35because there's a lot of hard work,
34:37time and energy, you know,
34:39and we did have a great house.
34:41It must be really cathartic
34:43to see something that represents
34:45all your effort and struggle
34:47and trauma over the years
34:49actually something now that's come out of the ground.
34:51And it's a tipping point, right?
34:53Yeah, it's very much a tipping point.
34:55We can see the light at the end of the tunnel now,
34:57and it's a good place to be.
34:59It's been tough,
35:01but now we're here,
35:03I'm really optimistic.
35:05So how are you coping with money
35:07with this rebuild?
35:09Well, we've just run out.
35:11So now we're into
35:13mortgage debt,
35:15which is a bit of a, you know,
35:17because we were mortgage-free,
35:19so that's...
35:21Very cruel.
35:23Yeah, we just hit just over $600,000 at this stage.
35:25So that's a sizeable mortgage
35:27that you'd never imagine having.
35:29No, no, it's more than we originally had,
35:31actually, on the first house.
35:33COVID and in a couple of years
35:35the prices of materials and things
35:37have just skyrocketed.
35:44At this stage of any project,
35:46you might be exhausted,
35:48but also sensing elation,
35:50the elation of finishing.
35:52And with finishing,
35:54you forget the trauma of what happened before.
35:56But here,
35:58there's this undercurrent of resentment,
36:00bereavement,
36:02the burden of an additional mortgage in your 50s.
36:04And I just hope that once they're finished,
36:06Janet and Brownie can enjoy their new home
36:09as freely as they did the original.
36:11It's about a three-hour drive
36:13to get here from Queenstown,
36:15twisting through the valleys
36:17to get to this little pocket
36:19of South Island paradise
36:21at the foot of the mountains.
36:23And for me, that's a great metaphor
36:25for Janet and Brownie's own torturous journey
36:27to get to this finished home.
36:29So I'm just hoping we find them elated
36:31and not browbeaten by the church.
36:33And I think that's a great metaphor
36:35for Janet and Brownie's own tortuous journey
36:37to get to this finished home.
36:39So I'm just hoping we find them elated
36:41and not browbeaten
36:43by the challenges of the journey.
36:50What a little gem.
36:52It looks settled finish,
36:54but stand out.
36:56Beautiful.
37:05I love that.
37:07Beautiful, full metal protective jacket.
37:09Really finely finished.
37:11A layer of warm honey-coloured timber
37:13just kind of welcomes you in.
37:15I love it.
37:17And the door opens.
37:19Hey, how are you?
37:21Janet and Brownie.
37:23Great to see you.
37:25Oh, it's great to be here.
37:27You must be stoked.
37:29Just want to go inside.
37:31All right, come on in.
37:36Look at this.
37:38Now that is a dramatic entrance,
37:40if ever there was one.
37:42Look, all the way up to the top of the building there
37:44and this complexity of the stairs
37:46and the different levels.
37:49Quite tussock-like, isn't it?
37:51This strand board.
37:53It's quite calming.
37:55It's come up a lot better than we thought.
37:57There's been a lot of people going,
37:59oh, you can't leave your walls like that.
38:01It's not going to work.
38:03But it's come out stunning.
38:05This beats a boring piece of painted jib any day.
38:07Yeah.
38:12Look, this is what it was all about.
38:14Yes, yeah.
38:16That view framed so beautifully.
38:18Always changing, that view.
38:20It's never the same.
38:22Never get bored.
38:24World-class.
38:26From your couch.
38:28Yes, it's pretty good.
38:30Yes, home.
38:32Home at last.
38:34Finally.
38:35Finally.
38:44Solid stairs, no creaks.
38:46Yeah.
38:48And we're following the birds of night flight.
38:50Yes.
38:52Lovely to see it here.
38:54Found their way home.
38:56Yeah.
38:58Budget constraints led to major design alterations,
39:00but these did allow for the addition of a second level.
39:02Despite needing a little finishing,
39:03it's become a fantastic bonus space.
39:05There are extra rooms here as well,
39:07so we've got one, another one there.
39:09Yeah.
39:11It was marvellous, but it's been taken over already.
39:13No, I'll need more.
39:15Already?
39:17I really love that room.
39:19Yeah?
39:21It's my favourite room.
39:23Downstairs again,
39:25and the Japanese influence is clearly felt
39:27in the calm and precisely finished bathroom areas.
39:30This is rather lovely.
39:31More strand board,
39:33and these bathrooms, very zen.
39:38Oh, now, here's a treat.
39:40Yes.
39:42It's an Ofura, a Japanese soaking tub.
39:44I've always wanted one.
39:46It's my special treat to myself.
39:48That's lovely.
39:50In this more private part of the house,
39:52there are bedrooms for sons Harvey and William,
39:54and for Janet and Brownie too.
39:57Now, the master bedroom,
39:58look at those views.
40:00Yeah, they're pretty good.
40:02This is the only room, right,
40:04with two views, corner views.
40:06You saved them for your room.
40:08Yes.
40:10My one stipulation was that I could sit in the bed
40:12and see the ski field.
40:14Yeah.
40:16I can look straight up and see where we're at,
40:18where the snow's good,
40:20and if we're on.
40:22Touching distance there.
40:24Yeah.
40:26The new house is not the only thing
40:28that's risen from the ashes of the fire.
40:30The sole survivor in the garden
40:32is also thriving.
40:36So this is the special tree.
40:38Yeah.
40:40It certainly is.
40:42It was a scrappy little fella last time I was here.
40:44Yeah, no, it's good.
40:46It's a survivor.
40:48And this was kind of the first sign
40:50of hope amongst the nightmare.
40:52Yeah, it was.
40:53And when you look down at the ground,
40:55look, there's the house.
40:57Yeah.
40:58Risen from the ashes,
41:00and what a fine house it is.
41:02Yeah, very happy, actually.
41:04Really pleased.
41:14Well, I have to say,
41:16it's a great pleasure to be sitting here
41:18in your finished house,
41:20because you're finished.
41:21It's been a traumatic few years.
41:23Really difficult.
41:25Unbelievable.
41:27What kept us going was just the kindness
41:29of family and friends,
41:31and complete strangers.
41:33How does it feel compared to version one?
41:35I really, really, really love this house.
41:38You know, all that hardship we went through,
41:40it was worth it.
41:42And I'm so proud of my family,
41:44you know, that we stuck together.
41:46We didn't fall apart.
41:48No.
41:49I was sitting here, you know,
41:51sitting here last night,
41:53and it was just like the old house
41:55and all the family out there playing.
41:57It felt the same, didn't it?
41:59Oh, it just felt amazing.
42:01And you haven't had that for a long, long time?
42:03Not a long time, no.
42:05No, it just felt so great.
42:11Very early on,
42:13you had a very precise figure
42:15for the cost of this house,
42:17and I'm going to have to look at what that was.
42:19$946,500.26.
42:24Where are you at?
42:26We're at 1.1.
42:28I thought it was pretty good, actually.
42:30Yeah.
42:32You know, for what we've done,
42:34but, you know, I don't like having a mortgage.
42:36No, that's a little bit, it hurts.
42:41The town is now thriving.
42:43Yeah.
42:45I thought it was going to die after the fire.
42:47I thought people would never come back,
42:49but they came back better, in a way.
42:51It's just beautiful,
42:53seeing kids on their bikes and people kayaking,
42:55and there's more activity on the lake.
42:57A true rebirth.
42:59Yeah.
43:01Let's make it special again.
43:03Yeah.
43:05We did it.
43:07We did it.
43:09When we analyse a house,
43:11we might admire the great architecture,
43:13marvel at the interior finishes,
43:15the light fittings, even.
43:17But actually,
43:19the analysis might be a little skin deep,
43:21because I think,
43:23in the case of a special house,
43:25like the one that was here and is now,
43:27that's missing the point.
43:29The most important thing is the spirit of the place.
43:31And so, to answer that question,
43:33is it worth trying to reclaim
43:35what we've once loved and lost?
43:37In Janet and Brownie's case,
43:39and despite the most difficult,
43:41unkind rebuild process,
43:43you'd have to say,
43:45it is.
43:46100%.
44:16¶¶
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