Family leaves cave for the sea

Press, 21 May 1986, Page 3

Family leaves cave for the sea

By

BARRY SIMPSON

in Nelson

• Nelson’s cave dwellers are moving to the sea. Keith and Kaylene Hosie and their two sons are forsaking probably the most unusual home in New Zealand and an acre of high-value land to live on a yacht under construction.

The property, with a 68 cubic metre bunker-like cave which has four, 10tonne boulders, is on the market at $250,000. The Hosies began their trek towards the sea five years ago when they moved from Hope to Nelson’s most prestigious residential area, The Cliffs.

They looked at the land — on the seaward side of the road — and the magnificent panoramic view across Tasman Bay and inland towards the Tasman mountains. They believed any building would

be "cumbersome” and would be at odds with the undulating nature of the land.

They had the idea of blending much of the building in to the natural contours of the slope, an idea from an American magazine and augmented by their own knowledge of the unobtrusive observation post bunker and gun emplacement on The Cliffs during World War 11.

Then the fun started. Planning approval for the huge excavation took six months. Once approved, a convoy of trucks worked for four days removing the 1000 tonnes of soil from the site (some 7 metres deep). An engineer designed the cave and a Nelson bridge-builder, Mr Carl Thelin, directed construction. Mr Hosie recalls that 85 cubic metres of concrete was poured over

nine tonnes of reinforcing steel for the building and the tunnel leading to it Of this, 46 cubic metres of concrete was poured in the cave alone. The Hosies would be first to admit that this was not the cheapest way to build a home. The cave itself is unusual enough. What makes it unique is that as well as providing sleeping and living accommodation for the family, it houses four monstrous boulders transported from the Sherry Valley, 70km from Nelson.

The placement of the boulders, each weighing between 12 and 18 tonnes, is a story in itself.

After the floor was laid and before the window and sliding door sealed off the unit, the boulders were pulled, pushed, winched, and inched into place during a job fraught with danger.

A payloader and ditchdigger were used in combination to move each boulder up the reasonably sleep slope in front of the cave and into it The failure of a machine could have sent boulder and machine down the slope and over what is known as Magazine Point on to the State highway below.

The boulders and a huge bed in one corner of the cave — a bed which breaks down into four single beds for the family — and a well used sun lounger are the only items of furniture in the cave.

Cold, Not so, said Mrs Hosie. The cave is insulated and above the curving, concrete roof the soil helps give insulation. The cave was warm in the winter — getting, as it does, the last rays of the dying sun — and cool in summer.

“We keep the windows open all year,” she said.

From the road there is no indication that a cave is sited below road level. The only structure visible is a rather tall, box-like building, obviously used as a double garage. This building, on the bottom level, also houses a modern kitchen-living room, with a view from the sink bench which is far from conducive towards speedy meal preparation or dish cleaning, and the toilet and bathroom.

The entrance to this room and the cave is through tall, heavy steel doors and a long concrete tunnel.

It is not everyone’s ideal home. According to Mrs Hosie, it is more for the creative and artistic people who love it for its "softness and peacefulness.”