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ALL ARE WELCOME

Friends, family, animals, kids and especially horses are encouraged to stop by this historic Hawke’s Bay estate

It’s not unusual for Sven and Lara Baker to round the bend of the driveway leading to their home of three years and find the neighbours’ kids in their pool. Or, perhaps, a bunch of teenagers leaning over the enormous billiards table in the games room. They might even spot a few visiting ponies in the paddock.

One of the loveliest aspects of this couple’s move from Wellington to the tiny rural community of Raukawa, near Hastings, is that their property is a place where friends converge, locals pop by to lend a hand and furry friends are welcome.

Sven and Lara, who share Glen Aros Estate with their four boys Ike, 21, Joe, 19, Abe, 16, and Ezra, 14, as well as dogs Whisky, Spot and Mabel, various sheep, cows and goldfish, love everything about the expansive home. In particular, they enjoy caring for their array of competition and breeding horses – up to a dozen at any one time.

“I’m sure there are more than that,” muses Sven. “I’m not including foals,” Lara retorts while Sven mutters something about them all being brown and therefore difficult to count.

It’s horses that this family of keen equestrians have to thank for their eventual move north. “We’d travel up regularly for Horse of the Year and started seriously contemplating buying a holiday home here,” says Lara. However, when the family spied the historic Glen Aros Estate for sale – a magnificent six-bedroom home on 10ha of rolling land – the idea of a bach idyll morphed into a permanent move.

The property, built in the arts and crafts style the Bakers love, had passed into the hands of Americans Hilton and Barbara Glavish, who ran it as a luxury lodge. “They’d appreciated the architecture as much as we do and spent a lot of time and money developing it,” says Sven. For instance, all the joinery has been rebuilt in rimu and mātai, and the tiling in the bathrooms carefully selected to echo design features from 1912, the year the home was constructed.

But the Glavishs didn’t want just anyone taking on their pride and joy. “Once we expressed interest in buying it, we felt a bit like we were going through an

interview process with them,” explains Lara. “It was very much a case of them choosing to sell to us, not us buying from them.” Luckily, the stars aligned, a friendship was formed and the house was soon Sven and Lara’s.

One of their favourite places in the home is the American farmhouse-style kitchen, with its enormous Wolf commercial oven which is perfect for catering for friends who gather around the long outdoor table on balmy evenings.

Or, you’ll spot Sven in the garden, originally designed by famed landscape designer Alfred Buxton in the early 1900s. It comes with a fascinating register of the trees, so that any species lost can be easily replaced.

But it’s the brand new stables where Lara and the boys are most often found. Sven, who was CEO at multidisciplinary agency Designworks until 2016, designed the stables. “And I had a very challenging client,” he quips.

Wanting it to look as if it had “always been here”, Sven created elements to mirror those on the existing home. “I also took inspiration from a big shearing shed down the road, particularly with the raised vents you see along the roof line.”

The result is a beautiful eight-bay stables that easily accommodates the family steeds, as well as any visiting horses that turn up with guests using the standalone cottage, rented on Airbnb. Lara admits she enjoys the hustle and bustle of hosting, and that any visitors usually end up at the house for a barbecue and a swim in the resort-style 18m-long pool and spa. “When the farriers come to do the horses’ feet, they often stay the night, too.”

Sven is “head gardener” and has purchased a tractor to keep on top of the many jobs that come with nurturing such a large tranche of land. But he’s prone to distractions, says Lara.

“He likes to move things around when I’m away at

‘Once we expressed interest in buying it, we felt a bit like we were going through an interview process’

horse shows. It’s become a bit of a running joke,” she says. “Once, an entire section of garden disappeared. The other day, I arrived back and there was an old boat sitting in the driveway – one of Sven’s restoration projects.”

Because that’s another passion of this vanguard of style – repairing what’s old to make it new again. Lara lists the various obsessions – valve radios, Michelin memorabilia, Bang & Olufsen audio equipment.

Aside from his creative consultancy company Sven&Friends, Sven’s latest project is Good Farmers New Zealand. His restored 1956 General Motors Company truck branded with the Good Farmers insignia is fast becoming a fixture in nearby Havelock North, where Abe and Ezra attend high school.

“It’s a community of producers who believe in the same things,” explains Sven. “While the business itself doesn’t grow anything, we bring on like-minded partners and share the asset – which is the Good Farmers brand – with them to use.”

So far, it’s been a roaring success, with Good Farmers coffee, muesli, eggs, organic meat and much more available in specialist food stores. Lara and the boys are happy to review produce that makes it to the Glen Aros kitchen bench, but this is Sven’s baby – he came up with the idea and brand design.

It’s his appraising eye, coupled with Lara’s background as a fashion designer in Australia, that is also evident, that is also evident in the artworks and trinkets collected over several decades – a huge Fane Flaws tiki and a scattering of smaller Flaws works in the living spaces, for instance. There is a cabinet heaving with Fun Ho! toy cars, Ned Kelly statues peering out of shelving and Sven’s impressive collection of Designers Institute of New Zealand Best Design awards lined up along a sideboard, gathered during his 30-year career.

But the property, although pretty much perfect in every way, isn’t quite complete yet. “Because Sven has his collections, allowed as many animals as I like,” says Lara with a laugh. “We recently lost a donkey and some kunekune pigs, so I’m refurbishing my pet stocks as we speak.”

ANTENNA BEAUTY

en-nz

2022-08-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-08-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmagazines.pressreader.com/article/282175064834993

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