It was meant to be - that's how Stephen and Helen Packer sum up their purchase of a corrugated iron-clad house in Bannockburn.
Lynda van Kempen takes a closer look at the character-filled home and grounds that are the holiday base for three generations of their family.
Neither Helen nor Stephen Packer had ever been to Bannockburn when they detoured into the historic Central Otago town 17 years ago.
''It was serendipity,'' Mrs Packer believes.
Her husband, a consultant surgeon, carried out clinics at Wanaka once a month and on that particular weekend they detoured into Bannockburn on the way home to Dunedin.
''It was springtime and the wattle was flowering and the plum tree in the garden was in full bloom and there was a ''For Sale'' sign on the house so we thought: let's have a look,'' she said.
''There were no other houses in the street then and there was just scrub next door.''
They had considered building a holiday home in Central Otago but decided this house fitted the bill and they could shift in straight away. They came up for the summer and planned a few changes to the building.
''It didn't have a proper kitchen bench, there was just a cooker, zip heater, a water heater and that was it.''
An architect drew up plans for the Packers, working around some ''no go'' areas. The couple said the old coal range had to stay and the plans for an extension had to fit around an old grapevine and fruit trees.
The addition to the tiny 1923 cottage has kept the building's character, while letting in more light and expanding the living space, kitchen and number of bedrooms.
It is difficult to see where the original ends and the extension starts and every effort has been taken to make the addition seamless. The house is the second one to be built on this site.
The old Orion cooker remains a focal point of the kitchen and its blue speckled finish meant it dated back to 1926, the Packers learned. A new grandfather clock has pride of place in another corner of the kitchen and looks like it, too, has always been a fixture.
The kitchen draws the eye with its sunny yellow walls and red ceiling, but the colours work together well.
''The red ceiling dated back to its early days and the Chinese gold-miners certainly considered the colour to be good luck, so we've kept the colour,'' Mrs Packer said. A red bench, polka-dot tablecloth and other accessories add further red accents to the room.
The nod to the past and the building's art deco heritage continues in the rest of the rooms, with furnishings and colours chosen in keeping with the era.
Inside one of the bedroom wardrobes, the original floral wallpaper has been kept intact as a special feature.
The cottage's colourful history adds to its charm. It was apparently built for a Mrs Thompson, whose husband was killed in a coal-mine accident in Bannockburn. Coal was used to fuel the gold dredges.
Another early owner of the property, a family by the name of Adie, was responsible for the mud-brick garage that is still on the site.
''They owned the first Model A Ford in the area, which had wind-down windows, and it was so special, they built a garage for it,'' Mr Packer said.
The original wire gate marking the path to the front door is another feature that remains from the property's early days.
In the 1950s and 1960s the house was used by rabbit board employees and evidence of their work was unearthed all around the place, including gin traps under the hedge and a home-made mixer for chopping up carrots and spraying them out.
The Packers were also told an anecdote about some of the house occupants during that time.
One of the rabbiters used to stay in the Nevis Valley for several days at a time and his wife gave him a rolled-up blanket to use when he camped out in a hut in the valley.
''After he'd gone, she realised her wedding ring had gone missing and couldn't find it anywhere so she wondered if it was wrapped up in the blanket,'' Mrs Packer said.
''Three days later when he came home and heard the story, he went back up and searched for it but couldn't find it anywhere.
''The next year, she was cleaning out their home vege garden and pulled up the beans, to discover at the bottom of the bean stalks, there was her wedding ring.
What are the odds of that happening?''A big concrete tank in one corner of the property would be ideal for a garden shed, the Packers decided one day.
It wasn't until they tried to get a door and windows cut they realised the ''tank'' was a solid, metal-reinforced ''inches- thick'' piece of equipment that started its life as the rotating drum on a gold dredge.
Needless to say, it was a quite a mission to cut into the structure, so they abandoned the plans to add windows as well as a door.
The cottage has certainly had a new lease of life for the past 17 years as a holiday base for the extended Packer clan.
Their children and grandchildren are as fond of the place as they are and one of their daughters even chose the Bannockburn property as her wedding venue.
A small vineyard has been added to the plantings and the old fruit trees and grapevine keep producing as they have done for decades. The plum and apricot trees provide masses of fruit, which is turned into preserves and jam, and the massive walnut tree that shades one side of the house adds to the bounty.
The trees that surround the property serve a double purpose. Two have tree houses - there is one on the lower limbs of a willow for the younger grandchildren and one in the higher branches of another tree for the older grandchildren.
The Packer family's fascination with the house and Bannockburn has never waned.
''It's an ideal place, which suits us. It's what I'd call a working property and the area is surrounded by olive groves and vineyards and there's a few nice restaurants.
It's just over two and a-half hours' drive from Dunedin and we're in a whole different world,'' Mr Packer said.
The crib is a hive of activity for most of January, and bottling fruit from the property is just one of the tasks. Fishing is one of Mr Packer's interests and he has the Nevis close at hand.