S2 Ep3: Elizabeth Hayes, Nest Tree Houses

Andy and Elizabeth Hayes of Million Springs Farm in the Hakataramea Valley, South Canterbury, realised they needed to do something outside the box to set their accommodation offering apart.

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Listen to "S2, E3 Elizabeth Hayes - Nest Tree Houses" on Spreaker.

A tree house is part of the quintessential Kiwi kid upbringing, and now you can relive your childhood in style, thanks to Nest Tree House luxury treetop accommodation.

Found in the Hakataramea Valley on Million Springs Farm, the home of Andy and Elizabeth Hayes and their three children Charlie, 12, Ayla, 10 and Hugo, 8, the treetop accommodation injects a touch of playful adventure into a luxury getaway.

Liz and her three children Hugo, Charlie and Ayla

The farm has been in the Hayes family for six generations and was a sheep and beef farm, more recently converting to a 2000-cow dairy farming operation in 2009 when Andy and Liz took over the farm.

“There’s a beautiful tree block with some amazing views right down across the valley, we sat there one day and thought it would be cool for other people to experience it as well, plus add a bit of colour to our busy farming business. We have two tree houses on either end of the forest and there’s a barrel sauna in the middle.”

Diversifying the business was important to them and they quickly realised the need to do something outside the box to set their offering apart, if they were going to go down the accommodation road. “It was always a goal to diversify and we’ve always been open to opportunities,” Liz says.

Both Andy and Liz have fond memories of their own tree houses as children, and the tree house ticked all the boxes for the couple, offering fun, adventure and bit of playfulness, with a nod to the nostalgia of childhood.

“There are all these beautiful accommodation options here in New Zealand and we wanted to do something along those lines but we nutted out how to diversify and how to do something really true to us. Number one, we wanted to make something we would want to go to.”

The tree houses were bought to life by Liz Hayes.

The logistics and engineering of building a tree house were a little different to your standard build and Liz says Andy was great at helping bring her creative vision to life, and encouraging her when the project hit road blocks. The whole process took about four years, from the initial idea through to completion. She admits many people thought they were mad, initially anyway.

Andy and Liz Hayes on the swing bridge leading to the Nest Tree House on their Hakataramea Valley farm.

One thing that was a non-negotiable for Liz was the swing bridge. “I was asked a few times if we really had to have a swing bridge, and I stuck to my guns.”

There were times they thought about quitting, like when they were forced to go back to the drawing board when their initial plan was too expensive.

“Financially we had already invested and emotionally, for me, it was already done. Andy and I were a bit like dogs with a bone and it was just trying to work out how to make it come to life.”

Along with the stunning views, luxurious hot tub and sauna, you can expect the unexpected from the Nest experience, before you even arrive. “We wanted to start the playfulness from the start. When you book with us, the week before you come you get an email with a map and it’s like a treasure hunt finding your tree house.

“It’s been really humbling…that people are interested or like what we’ve done, it means the world really. Being able to bring a bit of joy to people, that’s what life is about.”

Liz herself was bought up in Christchurch, but her family had a farm in Methven, and many school holidays were spent on the farm grubbing thistles or riding round on motorbikes. “When I met Andy, I was helping my brother herd testing in one of the dairy sheds. Andy was thinking I was a farm girl, but I was actually studying journalism. I did love the farm and the freedom of it, which I had experienced growing up.”

After broadcasting school, Liz went on to do radio and television news with TV3, with her career aspirations focused on the media industry.

Nest Treehouses feature a barrel sauna where guests can enjoy the view

Life changed when she met her farmer, moved to the country and had children. She muses that things have come full circle, from the world of media to raising children, then building Nest. An opportunity then came along to co-host a political podcast, which she did for two years, and hopes to keep her hand in that space.

“It’s remarkable how life turns out, in a way. You think you’re saying goodbye to something, create something completely left field to that and then you get back into that life again, it’s been really cool.”