NZ Life & Leisure

A Dunedin designer’s beautiful bespoke garments incorporate wild pest fur. No wonder Central Otago’s plentiful rabbits steer well clear of Jane Avery’s tiny Earnscleugh holiday cabin.

The difference between a good steak and a great steak is the marinade.

When a gaggle of gardeners get together to make something happen, an entire district can reverberate with the result for years.

This couple hit the water, rain or shine, in a new venture bringing fresh kaimoana to plates while respecting the ocean’s resources.

So she said: ‘I’d really like a stone glasshouse.’ And he said: ‘Sure, I know exactly what you mean. I’ll build it.’ And he did.

A mad idea sown in a tin shed has grown into a bountiful business, taking this go-getting family from the Waikato to the world.

Combining friendship with work can be risky but two go-getting Tauranga women, each with a desire to create a more sustainable world, have chosen to join forces.

If you are sick of paying hundreds of dollars for a tiny bottle of celebrity-endorsed fragrance, these solid perfumes made from beeswax and essential oils are the answer.

The planting layout of the country’s national arboretum, Eastwoodhill, near Gisborne, is undergoing a reshuffle to a 100-year plan.

The sea, land and people reward this couple — in more ways than one — for their years of dedication to the Matakana Coast.

A couple, seeing the wood within the trees, set out with a long-term vision for a new home and an alternative forestry industry.

The sixth generation of a Hawke’s Bay farming family is bringing style to an historic landscape.

Boutique owner Karan Gregory has an eye for business based on experience earned, not learned.

A sewing teacher with a superhero-like enthusiasm for saving the planet packs a heap of personality into her tiny house.

Summer holidays for a Hamilton family mean a beach on the wild Waikato west coast with a small dog called Rosie and a retro caravan called Roxanne.

A New Plymouth mum pours her heart into a global movement, bettering the planet one toy at a time.

Mary Biggs started with Le Cordon Bleu, detoured into lemon cordial and is now back to basics with a country cooking school, sharing the bounty of her beloved farm.

If this green-fingered Dunedin landscape architect had her way, the entire world would be a massive garden with flowers bursting into bloom all year round.

Global cheese aficionado Juliet Harbutt hosts foodie tours from her home with vineyard views.

Despite growing up on the cutting edge of the minimal Modernist movement, this interior and architectural designer’s heart is in the past.

This refreshing cordial also makes a terrific base for a cocktail – just pour with gin over ice, then top up with soda water.

To cement their partnership, Antonia de Vere and Mark Seeney got married. Now they combine their talents in one very creative business, Markantonia

In her new book Observations of a Rural Nurse Sara McIntyre combined her nursing work with pleasure capturing, photos of the town of Kākahi where she practised.

Central Otago artist Deidre Copeland's paintings are immediately recognizable. Big canvases. Hyperrealism.

Hunting for truffles is not for the impatient or the olfactorily impaired. Success calls for a sniffer-out of buried bounty – in other words, a dog.

A stay at these all-glass cabins on the outskirts of Kaikoura is to step into a magical realm where the world is reframed and time works in mysterious ways.

How to keep a lime happy, even in the cold.

This recipe comes from Ruth Pretty's good friend Serena Bass, a cooking-school teacher and caterer based in New York.

A Wanaka couple’s enthusiasm for natural-fibre products weaves essential purpose into their business, warmth into their home, and ties them to a very personal pioneering past.

Further reading and additional online resources for our special edition In Your Backyard: Sustainability Through the Seasons.

These little individual cakes are very, VERY good. You can keep a stash of unfilled cakes in the freezer for emergencies.

A universal truth is the power of three. In the coastal township of Raglan, three adored baches subscribe to that hypothesis.

Happy days are forecast when the owner of a rosy-hued vintage caravan takes to the road.