A day before the shortest day of the year, after a fortnight of virtually no sunshine, I was off to visit some sustainably minded folk at a pair of Maungawera properties powered largely by the sun.
Compounded by the fact my assignment also fell during this week's much-hyped polar blast, and being ashamedly green (not in an environmental sense) when it comes to sustainable living, I dressed extra warmly for the occasion, and braced myself for . . . well I don't know what really.
''That we'd be huddled around a candle using an abacus?'' Diana Hickey, asked.
Possibly, yes, I silently conceded, cursing my ignorance.
Turns out, Mark Ayre and Mary Chaffey's house and their neighbouring ''granny flat'' where tenant Ms Hickey resides are both wonderfully warm, well-lit, fully functional homes. Not at all the primitive, cold structures I had envisaged such sun-reliant buildings to be under an unrelenting Upper Clutha inversion layer. While this time of year is challenging for these three, it simply requires better power management - and petrol generators as back-up.
It also turns out, I'm not the only one with preconceived notions of their lifestyle.
''We don't go down and beat the clothes on the rocks in the river, which is what people used to think we did,'' Ms Chaffey said.
''People meet us and think `they are actually normal people living an alternative way','' Mr Ayre added.
The couple were pioneers in sustainable living in New Zealand. When Mr Ayre built their ''natural home'' - the sustainable concept was not in vogue then - in 1991 at Maungawera, near Lake Hawea, it was one of only about half a dozen of its kind in the country.
''Back then, it was quite left-field, really,'' Ms Chaffey said.
''There were lots of people with lots of ideas, but no-one actually living it.''
So forward-thinking was their work, it won an award at the Otago Environment Awards in 1995, which was, in an ''ironic'' turn of events, sponsored by a major power company.
The octagonal log home overlooking the Clutha River is made of 4in x 8in Oregon timber, dovetailed in the corners to eliminate the need for nails, and with wool insulation.
The couple faced paying $40,000 to bring power lines in from the main highway, which was the ''wonderful, confirming point'' for going off-grid.
They installed a system of solar hot water and photovoltaic (PV) panels, batteries, an inverter and an eco-fridge/freezer, costing about $10,000. Their decision was validated a year later when serious national power shortages hit the rest of the population.
Today, they also have wind turbines, gas cooking and a log burner with a wetback and a modified thermette heating system on the chimney. Two PV panels have been increased to 14, and a GPS tracker has been added to one, so it can follow the sun.
They also eat homekill meat, make their own honey, grow their own vegetables, use biodegradable products, ride an electric bike and own few electrical appliances.
''It's about minimal impact,'' Ms Chaffey said.
While the generator is running to charge the batteries on wintry days, the family carries out their most power-consuming tasks, such as laundry and vacuuming.
In the summer, the surplus of power generated has to be dumped, much to their chagrin, so they try to maximise consumption levels then, too.
''But there's only so much vacuuming you can do,'' Mr Ayre said.
Their power consumption has grown with their family - they have a 19-year-old daughter Abbi, who has now left home, and a 16-year-old son Hugo, who has not ruled out following his parents' alternative energy example.
''Maybe, if it was always sunny,'' he mused, while busying himself on his laptop.
Despite the need to constantly calculate available power after several sunless days, Ms Hickey is delighted with her rented dwelling, just a few hundred metres along the driveway, which was originally built for Mr Ayre's mother.
Growing up living ''simply'' on a farm in Ireland, spending time as custodian of an Irish castle, and a stint in a house truck, makes Ms Hickey no stranger to unconventional living spaces ''a little bit away from the madding crowd''.
She owned a home in Christchurch which she partially converted to alternative energy, before living in a Wanaka flat where power bills were twice as expensive. Moving to her Maungawera home a year ago was ''a breath of fresh air again''.
The only winter drawback for Ms Hickey, a musician, is not being able to use amplifiers or her electric keyboard because of the drain on power. But acoustic rehearsals are a minor trade-off for her idyllic lifestyle.
''There's something really peaceful about not having electricity around you and there is a peace of mind that comes with the fact that what you've generated is what you're consuming.
''It's been a really amazing opportunity learning the system by living it and it's not something that comes along every day, so I've been really grateful to Mark and Mary for teaching me everything.''
Ms Hickey endured a period of ''hard graft'' as the old batteries in her flat reached the end of their life recently, but ''I just got new ones and the sun has come out in my world again''.
