Tui Nature Retreat

Brian and Ellen Plaisier invite women recovering from breast cancer to visit them at their Tui Nature Retreat in the Pelorus Sound. Receive a discount when you mention BCAC.

Tui Nature Retreat will donate $20 to BCAC for each booking made in this way.

For booking details and this special offer, view the pdf here.

All about Tui Nature Retreat
This information provided by Ellen Plaisier

Few townspeople could imagine the life that outer Pelorus Sounds residents Ellen and Brian Plaisier and their two children lead. Based in a paradisiacal setting on the top of a mountain, their Tui Reserve is so remote that they receive mail and other supplies only once a week by mailboat. Access is by boat and an all-terrain FWD transporter that takes 20 minutes to navigate up the steep and windy dirt track.

Dutch immigrants who arrived in New Zealand in 1994, the Plaisiers started with next to nothing. Despite Ellen being pregnant with their first child, they lived in a tent for the first four months and later in an aluminium garden shed that blew down three times in gales to the beach 180 metres below. Until they could rig up access to water, they bathed with rain water. Their few far-flung neighbours initially thought they were crazy.

"We wanted a simple, basic lifestyle, and we got that," says Ellen, adding with a laugh, "Well, it’s not simple, but it is basic."

Over the last 14 years, they have steadily built a haven despite a hand-to-mouth existence that allows for few luxuries, and they’ve done it all by hand by themselves. Building materials had to be ferried in by their small runabout and then transferred into a tiny, two-seater dinghy that Brian then rowed to shore. From there, kitchen counters, woodstoves, timber and heavy furniture were all hand-carried up a steep, tiny mountain path to their road vehicle.

"Our neighbours were watching me with binoculars, waiting for me to sink," Brian jokes.

Both their children were born in New Zealand. Leona, now 13, was a toddler as her parents built a tiny cottage during the first few years. When Ellen went into labour a second time, Brian frantically called three water taxis to rush them to Havelock an hour away. There was no time to getto a hospital, so Liam, now 11, was born minutes later in the small clinic there. A third child is expected in late September, but this time they hope to be temporarily stationed in town. The children are home-schooled.

Keen conservationists, the Plaisiers have permanently preserved their 100 acres of ancient bush in the Queen Elizabeth II Land Trust. They recently built an enclosure for three endangered species – skinks, geckos and kakariki (native parakeets) -- in connection with DOC. They also have a well-furnished, fully outfitted rental cottage that sleeps five and two cabins for one to three guests, especially those who love nature, almost total privacy and a chance to be completely away from civilisation. They also do day boattrips in the Sounds, complete with picnic lunches.

The Plaisiers’ aim is to create a lasting legacy at Tui Reserve for both humans and all the native wildlife. They are especially interested in working with school children and young people. As Brian says, "Young people come here and tell me how negative they feel about the state of the world, and they go away from here feeling positive. Maybe what we are doing helps to ignite other people. You can’t fix everything in the world, but you can create hope."

Pictures of Tui Reserve and more information are on their websites, www.tuinaturereserve.co.nz and www.conservationmarlborough.co.nz. You can reach them by email, info@tuinaturereserve.co.nz or by phone, 0800 107077.

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