Nestlebrae at South Head 1987-2011
Nestlebrae: a little history about the name
New Zealand born James McDonald settled in Helensville in the 19th Century and worked at McLeod’s Mill in Helensville. He later drove a bullock wagon for McLeod’s store, and it was he who selected the kauri timber for the Anglican church which opened in Helensville in 1879. He bought 140 acres at Parkhurst, about seven kilometres from town, on the South Kaipara Head peninsula. The original dwelling was replaced in 1898, after a fire, by a new house which they called Nestlebrae.
McDonald’s son George continued farming there, mostly with sheep and beef cattle, till he died in 1971.
By the mid-1980s it was in other hands, and run down. Troy Corporation, which crashed in 1987 along with the stock market, subdivided it into lifestyle blocks. We bought the one with the farmhouse on it, along with 15 acres, in that same year, intending to have fun with plants, and eventually we hoped to earn money from some of the more successful subtropicals.
2005 …
… through to 2011
And the soils were indeed warm. John attended a night course about 1983 at which the man who was then the chief Ministry adviser in Auckland gave a two hour lecture on soils. Red Hill Sandy Loams, which begin at about the Muriwai Road, northwest of Auckland, and continue northwards, were particularly warm. We came to South Kaipara Head, to the Nestlebrae South property, with his suggestion that “grass growth starts on these soils about three weeks before Auckland [generally]” ringing in John’s ears. It was nearly all open grassland, with a few trees inherited from the farming years. It was time to begin experimenting on our 6.16ha (or 15 acres in oldspeak).
Nestlebrae Exotics moved and evolved
This unique warm climate garden, home, and business was located on South Kaipara Head
After 24 years of plant collecting and seed importing we reached a time in our lives when we had to consider how long we could keep a big property going. We didn’t want to give up the lifestyle, the plants, and even more new opportunities and developments there. But it was time to think of handing on to people with fresh energies. We could not find a buyer for the business, unfortunately.
You can visit all around this website now and most of a sense of what Nestlebrae Exotics was all about by late 2011 has gone. From the home page you can access some information, much of it illustrated, and sometimes with thumbnail pictures you can click on to get bigger images.
We sold our South Kaipara Head property where Nestlebrae was for many years in 2011, and in October 2011 John relocated to a much smaller site near Kerikeri. His intention was to sell a strictly limited range of plants. There would be no palms for sale, perhaps a few ornamentals, definitely some of his best warm climate edibles, but mostly there would be hibiscus, many of them his own selections.
As the great American plant explorer David Fairchild used to write, and say- “Press On!”
Get in touch
Telephone John at 09 407 1906
or email Nestlebrae by clicking here
