On the next episode, screening July 14
Miriama meets an expat kiwi living the good life in Tuscany, Peta rediscovers saffron in Arrowtown, Tony visits a seven-acre masterpiece in rural Wairarapa, and advice on using colour at your place.


About the show
NZ House & Garden is a brand new, prime time home and garden series.  Each programme celebrates the homes, lifestyles and creativity of New Zealander’s in Aotearoa, as well as Kiwi’s who have made a life for themselves overseas. Sophisticated and elegant, NZ House & Garden will profile only the best homes, gardens and New Zealand cuisine.

In the very first episode of NZ House & Garden, we feature the Thomas family who live on their own deserted island “Little Eden Cay” just off the coast of Nicaragua.  Forget the typical beach house fixtures of rattan and bamboo, the Thomas’s Island home is filled with Italian designer furniture including an 18th century Harp.  Just like any kiwi family the kids have pets – except the five Thomas children had to catch their tropical fish and tame their vibrant parrots. 

Miriama Smith travels to Nicaragua to witness how Martin and Jenifer Thomas have successfully created their own paradise, in one of the most remote locations in the world.

We also feature a paradise garden much closer to home.  NZ House & Garden’s resident Garden Designer Tony Murrell visits a private garden that blends natural beauty with engineering vision to create the first private West Coast adventure park.   The breathtaking garden comes complete with its own nail-biting rollercoaster ride to the beach, a huge Fortress-like windbreak wall, a bush bure complete with hammock and swimming hole, a fifty foot waterfall and enough bush walking to keep even the fittest adventurer on their toes – it’s very hard to believe that this garden is someone’s back yard!

Well known TV ONE foodie Peta Mathias thought she’d seen and tasted it all until she met Fleur Sullivan, who boasts that the fish she serves is so fresh it’s still wriggling when she buys it.  This feisty Moeraki restaurateur has fought a number of bureaucratic battles to serve food her way, but her commitment to using the best local produce for her menus, including Moeraki Maori potatoes with mutton bird, is putting Moeraki – once only famous for it’s boulders, back on the map.

Miriama also meets artist Tracey Tawhiao, who is unapologetically passionate about her life and her work. Her house is an extension of her creative life with many of the walls and even the doors of her home adorned with beautiful maori art, heavy with ancient symbolism but at the same time completely contemporary.

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