Visit Akaunui Farm Homestead for a stunning private lunch at an historic rural home. Located in rural Canterbury, near Ashburton, the homestead is a window into NZ’s farming history and a charming place to visit. 

The home was built in 1905 for Edward Grigg, son of John Grigg, one of Canterbury’s pioneering colonial farmers. It was originally part of the Grigg family’s, massive sheep and cropping farm, Longbeach Estate. But it has long been in the family of current owners today, Di and Ian Mackenzie.

Today Akaunui’s 600 hectares (1500 acres) is in vegetable and grain seed, and sheep and dairy cattle. And the you’ll see the brick homestead, with generous verandahs and covered balcony, as you enter the property along the hedge-lined driveway.

The garden that surrounds the home is a big part of the  Akaunui Farm Homestead experience. The landscape was designed by Alfred William Buxton (1872-1950). And it features Buxton’s characteristic features including a curved entrance drives and perimeter plantings of forest trees.

Di oversees all the gardening on the property while Ian served as the National Brain and Seed Chair of the Federated Farmers of New Zealand.