The house was impressive. The three-level dwelling hugged the hillside, had three bedrooms, a study, two bathrooms, a jazzy kitchen, ample living areas and felt just right.

Owned by a builder who entered the home in the 1995 Master Builders Home of the Year Award, it was beautifully and soundly built, but as for the rest of the property, which hadn’t been developed, June said: “We had to have vision.” And that wasn’t difficult for the former Manukau City Councillor and member of the Auckland Regional Council.

Blackberry and Japanese honeysuckle covered the hillside but luckily June did have a vision in mind, as well as very green thumbs and an enthusiastic, willing husband. The previous owner intended to landscape right up to the house and hadn’t allowed for al fresco living.

While the Hieatts love to work, they also love to relax, and immediately added four decks to take advantage of every aspect, so meals and refreshments could be enjoyed in a sheltered spot at any time of the day or night.

The north-facing property took in the Bombay Hills to the left, Auckland City straight ahead, Redoubt Road to the right, and the Hunuas tucked behind a large stand of kauri on the section’s Eastern perimeter. All these aspects remain.

The scrub-covered land was also home to hundreds of volcanic rocks that landed on site long before the new owners arrived.“It seemed everywhere we wanted to plant a tree, we’d discover a huge rock just under the surface,” says Des. “In the end, we let the rocks form the framework for the landscaping – there was no point fighting nature.”

<!--page--> Because of the topography, the garden was designed on three levels – the gardens near the house were planted with a mix of cottage-style flowers, natives and succulents, with winding, white stone steps creating picture-perfect vistas at every turn; the long, elegant driveway was bordered with agapanthus, washingtonian palms and birches, and below an orchard and five-paddock farm, complete with sheep, made up the property now called High View.

“The loamy soils were a treat and there was no clay at all,” said June. “A lot of the garden is free sown now, and maintaining it is simply a matter of weeding out the things I don’t want. The rule for my garden is perfume. I love to pick flowers and place them in vases around the house – blue, white and pink are my favourites.”     

The High View sheep seem to know they’re onto a good thing. June could never bring herself to eat the flock they’d raised from lambs – perhaps a little unusual for a former butcher’s wife – and when the four-legged friends die, they’re buried respectfully on the property.

June recalled taking an orphaned lamb on holiday to Pauanui one summer. ‘Lockie’ frolicked in the surf with the family dog and certainly didn’t want to go back to the paddock on his return.  

Des and June have put in thousands of hours of work, plants and trees over the years, keeping the nurseries around Papakura very busy for a while. Cuttings from friends’ gardens also made a major contribution to the garden that has lovingly evolved and now June is returning the favour, taking delight giving her cuttings away.  

Looking around the garden, one could be tricked into thinking it’s been there for decades. Rustic gates, old garden sheds and pastoral flotsam and jetsam such as wagon wheels and wheelbarrows have been artistically displayed to give the place a feeling of depth in time. 

And like every interesting garden, there’s a story behind each plant and object. An auction at the historic Opaheke Sales Yards just down the road contributed to that strong sense of history. When the Hieatts bought the property, they bid successfully for metres of hardwood fence and pen railings and for just for $150, this timber with a past was transformed into 15 gates and five pergolas, with some planks still displaying the sheep pen numbers.

Adding further to the sense of history, several branches of giant kauri trees form natural sculptures in the garden. They were retrieved from Pullman Park in Takanini after a flood lifted the large and glorious specimens from their 35,000-year-old resting place. 

June and Des believe passionately in making something of the property they live on, and the hard work involved means relaxing at the end of the day is all the sweeter. “It’s fantastic to create your own environment, to have it exactly how you want it,” agree the couple.

June and Des make a great team and have achieved much together. And with four children and 13 grandchildren who visit and enjoy the property, this increases the pleasure the couple receives from their creation.

Behind many successful, driven women, there’s often a very hard-working and agreeable man, helping to make the vision become a reality –“We’ve found it works much better that way!” says Des.