Media Articles

....i love the new up to date website by the way, the videos were great, i have a better picture in my head now of what its like, it does look amazing...

Sandi Haycock

The Nelson Mail - November 2010

Weddings fuel Mudcastle expansion

On the up: Glenys and Kevin Johnston, owners of the Mudcastle in the Moutere are expanding their business by planning to build a commercial kitchen on site. Photo: Marion van Dijk

by Karen Goodger

The Mudcastle in Upper Moutere has trebled its wedding bookings for next year and is planning to build a commercial kitchen to cater for its growth.

Owners Kevin and Glenys Johnston didn't intend the property to be a business when they purchased it six weeks after seeing it in 1990. "This is just our home," Mrs Johnston said.

"It's two years into a recession, but we're at the point of expanding. It makes sense financially to carry on making changes to our home when the demand is there."

Mrs Johnston said it was too commercially sensitive to reveal how many weddings were booked next year. There are some days where morning and afternoon weddings are booked to fit people in.

Last month the Mudcastle contracted Kudos Food Design of Nelson to take over from The Catering Company as its primary catering service.

The Johnstons are planning to build a commercial kitchen on site next autumn, after the wedding season. The Tasman District Council had been really supportive of the development because there were very few permitted commercial kitchens in the region, Mrs Johnston said.

"We'll be making it available on a casual basis."

The Johnstons want the kitchen to be sustainable - in keeping with the Mudcastle's approach - and this includes sourcing second-hand equipment where possible.

"It will be really exciting to build from scratch." Mrs Johnston was unsure what to attribute the upturn in business to, other than maybe the redevelopment of its website and closure of other similar businesses.

There's been a real resurgence of interest in its theatre dinners since the playhouse near Mapua closed, she said. "This Christmas is looking really healthy, whereas the last two have been diabolical."

The Mudcastle has been operating as a bed and breakfast since 1992 and can cater for up to 100 people as a function venue. The corporate sector was still incredibly mindful of budgets and public perception of spending money wisely, Mrs Johnston said.

"Maybe that's the new reality in terms of corporate bookings but weddings are definitely on the up as far as we can see."

Maybe people are solidifying their relationships as a form of security, she said. "Who knows."

Host New Zealand Magazine - February 2009

Focus on The Mudcastle

This quirky, adaptable venue is literally built from the ground it stands on - all 20,000 adobe bricks of it - but its owners reckon it's been worth every drop of sweat and slipped disc. By Rosemary Hepozden

In the eight years it had been on the market, nobody had spotted the potential of the triangular piece of gorse-covered land at the head of the Neudorf Valley just outside of Nelson and the property remained unsold - until Kevin Johnston and Glenys Harte chanced upon it in 1990, just six weeks after they had met. With its elevated position and rural views, they knew they'd found the perfect site for the large home they dreamed of. What they didn't know, however, was that when the gorse, ferns and pines were cleared from the site, they would be confronted with "a mountain of clay that was going to cost a fortune to truck off the site".

When a builder friend mentioned the possibility of using the clay to build and a library book on adobe houses appeared to back up his hunch, Johnston and Harte - with a multi-national army of Wwoofers (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) - undertook to make the 20,000 bricks needed to give shape to the dream. Harte says the physical work was "just so daunting", intensive labour that was completed in the evenings and weekends while the couple held on to their full-time jobs. But brick by brick, stage by stage, their home has become The Mudcastle , a multi-purpose venue with turrets and crenellated walls that in addition to bed and breakfast guests, hosts weddings, conferences, theme nights and murder

mystery weekends - a creation quirky enough to be featured in Extreme Homes of the World, a 26-part English television series made in 2005.
"Our original dream was just for a large home," says Harte, "but we built to fit the demand that was coming to us. People had been driving past watching this thing take shape and were dying to see inside so, when asked, we gave a group of local women lunch one day and everything started from there."
In addition to a habit of hard work, what Johnston and Harte brought to the venture was a background in hospitality and catering. Harte had been trained in the art of silver service in Des Britten's Wellington restaurant, The Coachman, had owned her own restaurant and had managed a hospital kitchen; Johnston had worked front-of-house in Nelson's legendary café, Chez Eelco. Also required was a certain naivete, says Harte, about how back breaking, literally, it would be: early on, she slipped a disc after carrying too many bricks, and Johnston became burnt out to the point that decision-making was proving impossible. They could only maintain momentum by reinventing themselves: "At that point, Kevin became my back and I became a list maker."
Holidays have proved an elusive respite from business - and, it seems, not something that the couple is very good at. "In 1994, we went to Fiji for our only holiday in 18 years. Within 12 hours, Kevin had got an ear infection and I'd come down with shingles. And even then, we were dying to get our toolkit out and repair a few things around the resort we were staying at."
In any case, holidays are a luxury denied to those whose home is their income. "People out on a Sunday drive will just drop in to have a look through as if it's a public venue. We can't be in our dressing gowns or have dirty dishes in the sink." Despite the on-call nature of the business, reward lies in their guests' admiration for all their creative effort and the success that has sprung from their early commitment to keeping ownership in their own hands rather than accepting involvement from overseas investors. Certainly, says Harte, it isn't because of any due diligence they put in at the start: "For two people who are usually cautious by nature, it was an outrageous thing to do!"

MeetingNewz  - May/June 2008

by Kathy Ombler

A major point of appeal for conferencing in Nelson is the close proximity to the city of rural venues, wineries and art studios. The Mudcastle, for example, with its intimate, unusual function space and spacious grounds, is in Upper Moutere, just 30 minute's drive from Nelson.

There is no shortage of creativity at the Mudcastle. The turrets, walls and rooms have been crafted from some 22,000 mud bricks by owners Kevin and Glenys Johnston, who recently sold corporate theming company, Creative Occasions.

"Day conferences, partner lunches, evening functions and dinners - we have the skills and the venue to do any kind of thing out here, and we have a huge range of props that we have been gathering for years for corporate theming," says Glenys.

"Medieval banquets are popular and in keeping with the property, plus we can do Faulty Towers, Rocky Horror or John Travolta dance nights on our portable, illuminated dance floor. Murder mystery nights are our perennial; many companies want to do something that's not too taxing yet don't completely switch off everyone's brainpower. Because it's an exclusive venue people are more likely to be happy dressing up because no-one else is going to see them.

"We can cater for 100 for functions and accommodation suites at the Mudcastle can be used for hosting guest speakers or key organizers.

For partner lunches, the Johnstons have created a local, Moutere tour that incorporates visits to Neudorf Dairy (to watch sheep milking and cheese making), Katie Gold's clay art studio, Redwood cellars (ciders and liquers), a knife maker's studio and a guided visit to Moutere's historic Lutheran Church.

Air New Zealand in Flight Magazine - January 2008

The Mudcastle

Medieval romance meets Kiwi hospitality

The first clue is in the name - The Mudcastle.

It looks like a castle and it's made from mud. No pretensions. Fashioned from adobe bricks that local couple Kevin and Glenys Johnston hand-made on site, The Mudcastle offers a blend of medieval romance and drama along with down-to-earth Kiwi hospitality and home comfort. "Having a country home of a size and style that makes it shareable on a grand scale is a wonderful thing," says Glenys Johnston. "Admittedly, we're not open seven days a week - we don't offer casual meals or a drop in bar - but as a totally private venue, the guests who are with us on any given occasion have the exclusive use of the castle and grounds and our undivided attention."

What The Mudcastle does offer is tailored events for private groups and functions, whether that be a wedding, conference, dinner theatre evening, themed banquet, private party or business function. They also offer B&B suites which frankly are out of this world in terms of privacy and uniqueness. Catering for up to 100 dinner guests, the Mudcastle's romantic gardens, secluded suites and boutique accommodation have created an international reputation for stylish, private and memorable wedding events. Imagine your ceremony in the garden or turret of your choice, fantastic food in the castle's banquet hall, dramatic photos anywhere on site, boutique accommodation for family and friends and a secluded honeymoon suite to escape to at the end of the night.

The Mudcastle is nestled in a rolling hillside valley in picturesque rural Neudorf, midway between Nelson and Motueka, in a world of its own but only 30 minutes from Nelson Airport.

Easily accessible, The Mudcastle provides a wonderfully creative venue for meetings, strategy days and conferences and frequently hosts the mid-conference break-out dinner or a special lunch for the partners of conference delegates. Because restaurants, corporate theming and even illuminated dancefloors all feature in the CV's of this creative couple, you can be assured of professionalism, experience, attention to detail and performance from start to finish.

In keeping with the theme of the venue, and the undeniably fun side of the hosts, The Mudcastle also offers hugely popular Murder Mystery Weekends and is occasionally booked by groups of us to 6 couples who hire the entire castle for the ultimate weekend getaway. For more information on The Mudcastle visit the website or pick up the phone.

The Motueka-Golden Bay News - March 2005

Castle home on world map

Neudorf has been put on the map thanks to an English Film Company.

Pioneer Productions has chosen Kevin and Glenys Johnston's clay brick home to feature in a television series, Extreme Homes of the World.

Mr Johnston said the home was one of 12 from throughout New Zealand chosen for the 26-part television series which will be aired on American cable television in 26 countries later this year.

Mr Johnston said the couple were honoured to have their "dream home" chosen for the series.

"They chose us from our website. That's pretty special. It's fantastic that we can share our home."

The Johnston's bought their gorse covered Neudorf property in 1990 and embarked on a journey to build a home.

After clearing the land they uncovered large amounts of clay. Faced with having to pay for the removal of the clay, the couple decided instead to use it to build their home.

From there, the dream of a castle began. What followed was months of intensive work to make 10,000 clay bricks and then to use them to build the first storey of the house. Building consent conditions meant only the ground level could be built from clay bricks.

Mr Johnston said while clay brick homes were not unusual, the house still stood out because of its castle-type features, including turrets amd a surrounding brick wall.

"It is like a fairy-tale house."

The two-storey home includes a function room, restaurant and accommodation. The couple host weddings, conferences and themed dinner parties.

The house was completed in 1995, although it looks like it could have been built 100 years ago.

Recently the couple added a turret to the home and business to make way for a larger function centre and built a separate two-storey turret honeymoon suite. The additions have been made from a modified brick recipe using clay, sawdust and concrete, which is stronger and lighter than the original clay brick.

Mr Johnston said another turret was also planned for the back of the house to add further room for expansion.

The Nelson Mail - March 2005  

Mud 'castle' to feature on TV

A Neudorf couple's fairy-tale dream home has gained attention from an English film company. 

Pioneer Productions spent yesterday filming Kevin and Glenys Johnston's mud brick home in Neudorf. The house was one of 12 of New Zealand's unusual homes which will feature in a 26- part television series called Extreme Homes of the World. 

The castle-like home features clay bricks made from clay extracted from the property. 

The Johnston's bought their Neudorf property in 1990 with no idea of what kind of house they would build. After clearing the gorse-covered land they discovered huge amounts of clay which either had to be disposed of or used.

From that the couple's dream to build a mud castle emerged and they spent the next five years making the 10,000 bricks needed for the house.

Building it was like taking a step back in time, Mr Johnston said.

"From looking at it, it looks like it was built 100 years ago. That was what we wanted."

The two-storey home includes a function room, restaurant and accommodation.

Since the home was completed in 1995, the couple have made a further 10,000 bricks with a clay, concrete and sawdust mix, to build two turrets.

The new brick was designed by Kevin's father Clive and was stronger and lighter than the original clay bricks, Mr Johnston said.

Mr Johnston said while mud brick houses were less unusual than 10 years ago, the house still stood out because of its castle-like features.

 "We are delighted that they have taken an interest in our home just from our website. It was completely unsolicited which is great."

 The television series is expected to be shown on an American Cable channel later this year and will air in 26 countries.

The Press, Christchurch - October 2004

Couple build mud-brick home

Kevin and Glenys Johnston used clay on their land to build their dream, writes Helen Murcoch.

Kevin and Glenys Johnston have carved out their living from Tasman's clay hills. During the past 14 years the couple have transformed steep gorse-covered 1ha clay-based land at the head of Neudorf Valley into a magical location crowned by their own clay-block home-cum-business.

The mud castle is the dream-in-progress for the couple, who say they don't have hobbies but instead have on-going tasks.

In 1990, six weeks after they met, the couple bought the neglected triangle of land not even sure if a viable building site lay under its mantle of gorse.

A tin roadside garage served as home while they cut the gorse by hand, pushed in a driveway and building site and turned to the surrounding clay to provide them a home.

A builder friend introduced them to clay-block building.

Armed with an Australian library book on the subject, and aided by a one-day practical course, the Johnstons started making the 10,000 17kg clay blocks their home would eventually require.

"It was always going to be a big house," said Kevin, "but it became bigger because the labour was ours and the building product was free."

Excavated from the house site, the sun-baked clay blocks for the 500 sq m home were formed, dried and laid with the help of 100 Wwoofers (willing workers on organic farms).

The labour-intensive textbook foot-stomping method was used for the first batch, but, with a pitiful batch of 70 blocks and fast running out of friends, other options were explored.

The refined cake-mixer method, using a customised rotary hoe, produced 300 blocks on a good day.

Three rotary hoes and one front end loader later, the required blocks were produced.

The blocks were baked in wooden molds, with covers to moderate temperature extremes.

The completed two-storey home - the top floor is built of Lawson cypress and macrocarpa - promotes solar heating and valley views.

The couple had 10 - 12 Wwoofers living in the house at any one time during the construction phase, while they lived in the garage.

The private restaurant aspect of what is now called The Mudcastle started with an approach from the women's division of Federated Farmers to look through the home.

Murder-mystery evenings took off after a local bank wanted something a little different in way of a work function.

Themed weddings and functions began after the couple's own nuptials and conversations with brides stressed from organising their own receptions.

The Johnstons are now building stage two of their dream: three turrets.

The first is a function room attached to the front of the house, the second, connected to the main house by a castellated wall, is a two-storey honeymoon suite. The third, to be built on the eastern side, is to be the couple's private living space.

They expect to start building the final turret in two year's time.

The construction is following the mud-brick theme, but is using a clay-based mix developed by Kevin's father, Clive.

The breezeblock-style bricks are as strong as concrete and only a quarter of the weight. They also do not require weather protection as is needed by traditional clay bricks.

It is the first time the new bricks have been used in a building and will eventually be patented for sale.
The Mudcastle story... ... it interests people from all over the world.
The Nelson Mail - July 2001

Kevin and Glenys Johnston bought a one hectare triangle of undulating gorse and scrub in April 1990, six weeks after meeting!

It was the first and only piece of land they looked at; they proceeded to turn it into what is now The Mudcastle.

Today you can stay overnight in this quality bed and breakfast, take a group to a private dinner party, experience their murder mystery dinner evening or get married and honeymoon in the dream venue Kevin and Glenys are still creating.

Guests are frequently caught up in the pioneering magic of The Mudcastle story - a single, uninsulated garage sitting on gravel was the home of this enterprising, energetic couple for two and a half years. There was no running hot water, two hotplates and an oven which couldn't be run at the same time and a workforce of up to 12 WWOOFERs (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) to feed three times a day. They bathed under the stars and trees ( and birds) with hot water siphoned off after two hours of boiling the copper - add to this a long-drop toilet and you have accommodation as far away from their current home as you could ever get.

But, the story is the legend here. It is part of what makes The Mudcastle so interesting, so wonderful and so homely.

Kevin and Glenys now live in a home they created - their dream turned into a reality and a place where they radiate their vitality.

The Nelson Mail - July 2001

The Mudcastle - a magnificent venue

Ten thousand hand-made, sun-dried clay bricks are now what is The Mudcastle on the Neudorf to Dovedale road. Even more impressive when you consider Kevin and Glenys Johnston made them all - from clay dug out of their property.

What a WOW factor on first sight, as you drive through gentle, undulating rural land. Turn off and follow the red-hot poker lined driveway up to the house and wait for the pleasure as you experience this labour of love - a personal, intimate, unique bed and breakfast, honeymoon destination extraordinaire, intimate wedding and function venue, private restaurant and most of all - the home of this enterprising couple who have worked extremely hard to present a magnificent venue.

Because it is their home, and to protect the privacy of their guests, they ask people to phone first for an appointment to view it when planning a private function or considering discerning accommodation. Alternatively, have a look at their website www.themudcastle.onlinebiz.co.nz. Casual sightseers are discouraged.

The Mudcastle has actually been taking guests for five years now, since they were approached by 15 local Thorp women to do a luncheon. They told their husbands and the ripple effect took off from there.

The decor is superb, the attention to detail and the welcoming nature of the hosts commented on repeatedly in their visitors' book. Some guests come back regularly just to see the progress because it is a continual, on-going creation for Kevin and Glenys.

A peek into the pantry is awe-inspiring. It's not only laid out for easy access but it is a picture of home-made pickles, chutneys, preserves and jams.

Look down at the bright red floor and wonder - it's a special old technique where they used bull's blood to seal the clay and it looks just right in this olde-look food storage room.

Every nook and cranny is inspired with novel decorating ideas - the Teal bathroom is unbelievable. The large adobe brick

room makes a spacious environment for the in-house goldfish who live in two tanks beside the bath!

Stunning stained glass windows in the house are the work of Glenys - when she has the spare time! Along with Kevin, she runs the busy and now well-known Creative Occasions party decoration business which they are now selling in order to re-focus their energies on the next phase for The Mudcastle.

The Mudcastle is a presentation of perfection. The six guest bedrooms all have a decor to suit different ages and interests, there are five bathrooms and a new bar with the most stunning peacock stained glass window as its feature, along with a spa pool!

Kevin and Glenys say they are privileged to share their home with guests - it is most definitely a privilege to be a visitor there!

The Mudcastle - hospitality in a discerning home environment

The Mudcastle's restaurant Glosssops Eaterie is not a restaurant for casual dining. Dining is for groups or in-house guests by arrangement only. You are welcome to book it for medium sized functions when you want to enjoy Kevin and Glenys's hospitality. They understand the need for all the party to experience a relaxed, friendly evening.

This is their home, after all, so they welcome people who like the idea of dining in a home environment with friends, family, workmates etc., those who like the intimacy of socialising in a setting where they are the only dinner reservation for the evening and those who are looking for something totally different.

A guided tour of The Mudcastle is included as part of the evening for those who wish to see through this unique venue.

Murder Mystery dinners - a recent addition to The Mudcastle's repertoire - are proving extremely popular.

Small, intimate wedding functions are another speciality with the bride, groom and guests arriving to a "dream" wedding with everything in one venue and all done for them. No organisational worries - just arrive and experience the romance of The Mudcastle.

Kevin and Glenys can arrange everything you require from transport to music to decorations, tailoring a menu and beverage selection to your requirements and budget.

Some guests may stay on for discerning accommodation and, for the bridal pair, there is a romanically set honeymoon suite like no other in the region.

For honeymooners who marry away from this rural retreat, but book the honeymoon suite, The Mudcastle has a special package available for a romantic stay.

A sumptuous breakfast is served in your suite at a time you choose and there are no checkout deadlines.

Whichever aspect of The Mudcastle's hospitality you choose to experience, the words of one couple sum it up "Magical, theatrical and homely. Wow! Everything we heard about this place was an understatement!"

The Guardian - February 2001

A plan that turned to mud...castle

Back in April 1990, Kevin and Glenys Johnston looked at a triangular-shaped, geographically ‘unfriendly- to-work-with', single hectare of gorse-covered clay gully on the Neudorf Saddle.

"Just perfect," they agreed.

This was the first and last piece of land the couple visited with a view to building their dream home - a magnificent castle based in clay mud and straw construction.

Today, you can ‘bed and breakfast' in this impressive mansion, surrounded by many features of medieval style - chandeliers, arch-shaped castle doors with bold external hinges, a dungeon which serves as a bar, plenty of mud, straw and exposed timber, and even a coating of ox blood to seal the pantry floor.

But ‘The Mudcastle" as it has been aptly named by Kevin and Glenys, hasn't come cheaply - neither in terms of money nor wear and tear on the bodies who formed it from the ground beneath.

Like his dad, Clive the bricklayer, who helped construct the first storey of adobe blocks, shaping The Mudcastle and its landscape has left Kevin with a hernia (part of an organ protruding through the muscle wall of the abdomen), adding to previous conditions he suffered due to physical overload.

And Glenys has a bad back from performing the dual roles of a forklift and a crane.

"It's nearly wrecked us at times, but you can't convince a pair of workaholics to take it easy," say the couple who also run a business, ‘Creative Occasions', in Nelson which caters for decorating the venues for parties and special functions.

In the early days of The Mudcastle's construction, day-to-day living for Kevin and Glenys was almost as old-fashioned as the theme of their home.

A single, uninsulated garage placed on a gravel bed was home for two-and-a-half years - no running hot water, two hotplates and an oven that couldn't be used at the same time, a long-drop toilet and a predominantly unskilled workforce of up to 12 WOOFERS (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) to feed three meals a day, and provide a bath under the stars, with water siphoned overland after two hours of boiling the old copper.

The land was cleared with bulldozers, pigs and goats, the building site excavated, the plans drawn up, the on-site clay seived and the back-breaking construction of over 10,000 adobe blocks began.

This project was interspersed with the production of birthday cakes and endless pavlovas for the non-kiwi helpers - and making home-brewed beer, which certainly wasn't Kevin's first experience in the manufacture of alcoholic beverages.

Remarkably, as a 14 year-old Motueka High School student, Kevin learnt the basic rules of the fermentation process in his third form chemistry class (he won't divulge the name of his teacher) and discreetly produced an assortment of wines from a shed at his Lower Moutere home.

These included beetroot (which he says turned from deep red to golden yellow after a two-year chemical reaction), rose petal ("that's quite a nice one"), carrot, parsnip and even grass (I didn't go for that so much"), as well as the conventional ingredients of berries, pipfruit and grapes.

Kevin says "...one day, somewhere down the track" he looks forward to building a small winery in accordance with the original plans of their grand estate.

But other ideas are taking priority and becoming realised in the meantime.

With its remote rural situation, and perhaps suitably-shaped to accommodate a blood-thirsty Austrian Count, The Mudcastle's appearance would support any suggested rumours... of spooky or sinister ‘goings-on'.

Looking up the driveway you might imagine Norman Bates' mother, (from Alfred Hitchcock's ‘Psycho'), watching from the top window.

The Mudcastle is an ideal venue for the Murder Mysteries which the Johnstons are now promoting as alternative entertainment to complement a unique dining-out experience.

A minimum of 35 and up to 64 people, often corporate groups travelling by bus, are invited to search for the isolated restaurant location using cryptic clues before an evening of suspicion and suspense unfolds.

Kevin says a recent group of ‘dining detectives' thought they had reached their final destination at the cemetery in Upper Moutere.

Once at The Mudcastle, guests are taken on a guided tour, before enjoying a meal with fully licensed bar facilities, while following a special murder-mystery script written exclusively for the venue and their particular group.

Kevin says only the culprit and the organiser are aware of the villain's identity before the case is solved, but as resident host he is able to distinguish a number of red herrings and false evidence from the deliberately planted clues.

"At a recent event one player brought my old mountain bike in from the long grass in the paddock, presenting it as a possible getaway vehicle, while a pair of fibrolite cutters, which dad had left behind after doing some work for us, were submitted as a tool, perhaps used to dismember the corpse," says Kevin.

The Mudcastle is perfect for such an intriguing event as this because, as a private home and set in a remote location, a group of friends, workmates or family doesn't have to put up with distractions from other guests.

Kevin and Glenys admit that although making The Mudcastle has "burnt us out at times", they still have a lot of work to do before their plans are completed.

They shudder at the thought of ever having to start again and even declined generous offers from American and English guests inviting them to oversee the construction of similar homes abroad.

The Mudcastle, so far, is the evidence of Kevin and Glenys' ambitious pursuit, so the blood, sweat and tears they have together poured into its development over the last decade, don't expect to find it featured in any real estate agency window in the forseeable future.

It will take more than a bad back, the odd hernia and a fat cheque to persuade this perseverant couple to quit the palace they built in a gorsy gully which challenged the surefootedness of the goats... and the ingenuity of the Johnstons.

Craig Goodman.

The Leader - December 1997

Travelling over Neudorf way

The Leader continues its series of looking at people and places on the highways and byways of the province. This week PHIL BARNES writes about the western boundaries of The Leader readership area around Neudorf Road.

Neudorf Road winds through rolling farm country from the Moutere Highway for 12 kilometres toward Dovedale...

Seven kilometres south of Price's Corner Neudorf Rd passes the grandiose bed and breakfast building, The Mudcastle.

Owners Glenys and Kevin Johnston said they deliberately chose the isolated spot.

"I had been working really hard with a restaurant seven days a week in Wellington and it was a conscious move to escape from the cities," said Mrs Johnston.

"Also I originate from Nelson and Kevin is from Motueka so this is half way in between."

They said although the bed and breakfast had been open two years they had kept it low-key as they were still developing the property.

The New Zealand Women's Weekly - November 1995            

Their game is mud

by Helen Corrigan

For Glenys West and Kevin Johnston, it was a case of "first, mix the mud" before they could start their dream home.

Nelson-born Glenys and Kevin spent two-and-a-half years living "pioneer style" in a garage on the Upper Moutere site, shaping 10,000 bricks from clay for their adobe-style house. And without running water, bathing was an alfresco affair in an old tub out the back with the stars and the neighbour's sheep for company.

glenys adds, "We went the other way from most people and traded our brand-new automatic washing machine for a wringer."

They've been aided over the years by about 100 WWOOFERS (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) - part of a scheme begun by a Nelson couple where visitors from around the world trade labour for food and accommodation. Gradually they've turned the clay into The Mudcastle, a seven-bedroomed 5000sq ft home which Glenys and Kevin recently opened as a unique bed-and -breakfast establishment.

Streams of international helpers, most with English as their second language, made for some interesting conversations around the dinner table and, "all left a memory of themselves in the place", the couple say.

Since The Mudcastle opened, visitors have been impressed with Glenys' collection of antiques and curios and her eye for detail, as well as the house's more unusual touches like the bulls' blood - a traditional sealant for adobe houses - used to paint the pantry floor.

For Glenys, previously the owner of popular Wellington eaterie Glossops, and Kevin, a former fisherman, the house contributed to the evolution of their partnership.

"My role seemed to be planning, supervision and the final styling of the place, which Kevin gave me the space to do," says Glenys. "Kevin, on the other hand, handled the technical stuff like psi water pressure that I just would not have had a clue about. We ended up a great team."

Next Magazine - May 1995 - Home of the Month

Feat of clay

Nestled amongst the hills and valleys of Upper Moutere is a house which has grown, literally, out of the hillside it was built on. Lynne Dunphy investigates.

Six weeks after they met, Kevin Johnston and Glenys West started planning their new home. Three and a half years and a great deal of back-breaking work later, they've created The Mudcastle on a section which they could hardly see the first time they went to visit, because it was submerged in gorse.

When they started designing their home, Glenys and Kevin had two considerations in mind - they wanted to use natural construction methods and they wanted their house to be energy efficient.

Because they wanted a large house, the building site needed to be excavated. But rather than dumping all that wonderful Nelson clay they decided to make use of it. A one-day workshop with Richard and Bella Walker, local experts on clay house construction, convinced them that the method was for them. "The simplicity of the method appealed, as well as the fact that we could do it ourselves," Kevin says.

But the couple wanted more than a home. They wanted a house which would show off to its best advantage the antique furniture Glenys had been collecting for the last 20 years."We just had to take a gamble that the old furniture would suit a mud brick house, which we feel it does very well," she says with some relief. And they also dreamed of offering quality accommodation as a boutique bed and breakfast "aimed at tourists who want something a little bit out of the ordinary."

Many trips to the library later, Glenys and Kevin had a fairly clear idea of what they wanted and went to structural engineer Gary Hodder, who's well aquainted with clay house construction. He transformed their ideas into a coherent plan acceptable to council building inspectors. Building requirements meant they could have clay only on the ground floor, so they plumped for batten and board on top.

They've come up with a design that incorporates passive solar heating by careful attention to where the bricks are open to the sun at different times of the year. Since clay has no natural water repellant, that factor also had to go into the equation.

Glenys and Kevin had several trial runs before hitting on the most efficient way of producing the bricks. Clay brick (or adobe) houses are popular in the area, so there was plenty of expertise to draw upon. They started out going strictly by the book, tramping the clay mixture before forming it into bricks. "That wasn't ideal," says Glenys ruefully. "We cut our feet to ribbons because of all the little sharp bits of rock, and after a day's work we'd get about 70 bricks and couldn't walk for two days!"

Given that they ultimately made about 10,000 bricks for the walls and floors, this method went out the window fairly swiftly.

In the end, the couple went for a kind of cake-mixer method, using a rotary hoe in a clay pit full of water, clay and straw to produce a steady stream of bricks. "We'd walk up and down with the rotary hoe, then pick up a load with the front end loader and dump it into the moulds."

During the process, they exhausted three rotary hoes. "It was like mixing up about 1000 gardens - it was hard on the tools, even a concrete mixer wasn't up to it," says Glenys.

They used several moulds to provide the various brick shapes they needed, letting one lot set while the next was being poured. The bricks are sun-baked, but to avoid cracking during the drying process they had to be hosed down regularly. Then they had to withstand drop testing and compression testing for strength.

Living in cramped quarters during the building meant that moving into the finished house has been doubly satisfying. When they started work on the site, the couple shifted a single garage onto the section for them to live in. Glenys' father is an electrician so he rigged up the power. Kevin built an extension onto the garage so they'd have ventilation.

The garage was plonked down on gravel, so there wasn't a lot between them and the elements, and with no insulation the temperature inside was just the same as outside! The floor was reminiscent of the fairytale about the princess and the pea, but instead of a pile of mattresses, the couple piled layers of carpet over the gravel. An old wringer washing machine and a bathtub outside completed their abode for the next two and a half years.

There's no denying it was hard, but, says Glenys, "We coped because this was our dream. Keeping that in sight we put up with all sorts of conditions to achieve it."

The Wwoofer - that's Willing Workers On Organic Farms - scheme made the whole project possible. More than 100 people from all over the world donated their labour in exchange for room and board, and often English lessons as well! The couple qualified for help as at the time they were providing organically grown silverbeet to a local hospital, and believe the fact that so many people contributed their time and energy to building the house gives it a special quality. "It was amazing the way people with the skills we needed would come just at the right time," Kevin says. At times their energy flagged and it was then, says Kevin, that the Wwoofers proved their worth. "It was the energy from all the people coming in here saying this is really special that gave us the shot in the arm we needed."

The crew ate well. Everybody took a turn in the cooking, which meant cuisine from around the world. "The food bill was enormous but we had some good parties!" Glenys says.

Kevin's father is a blocklayer so he was able to help out, showing them how to make the arched doorways and circular walls.

After the combination of a prolapsed disc and redundancy forced her out of the workforce, Glenys became site manager. She didn't waste an instant though, and learned how to make stained glass windows and do stencilling. "I had to do something or I'd have gone mad," she says.

The second storey sits on top of the clay walls, which are reinforced vertically and horizontally with steel rods. It was built

using conventional construction methods, with batten and board exterior walls, wooden floors and gibbed interior walls. An enormous round window graces each side of the upper level's four faces. "It means it looks interesting from any side," says Glenys.

Now most of the hard work is done and The Mudcastle is open for business, with guests coming from all over the globe.

The house has a generous, expansive mood, helped along by its sheer size. At 464.5 square metres, there's plenty of room for everyone. The main entrance is a living area which has a conservatory feel to it, aided by the greenery twining up a large rough hewn log. Glenys has used indoor plants here and in the kitchen to enliven the clay walls and floor.

Downstairs she's used mainly calico, Indian cottons and dark green fabric in the curtaining. "I wanted colours that fitted with the natural tones of the clay." Persian rugs dotted about the floors add colour, as does her growing collection of pottery, glass and rugs made by local craftspeople.

The clay floor in this area is in a spiderweb pattern, centring on a marble-topped circular table. "Whichever door you come out of, the floor comes in towards the dining table," says Glenys with a smile, "and in case you miss the point, we built a clay spider into the floor!"

When they were deciding how to tackle the floor, rammed earth was one option, but having tried it in the pantry they decided it wasn't logistically possible. "There would have been so much work in ramming it and repairing the cracks and drying it." Even polyurethaning the floor was a major undertaking, because the clay was so porous it soaked up 60 litres before it was sealed properly.

Heating such a large area would have been impractical with an open fire, so a combination of passive solar heating, a fan system and the woodburning wet-back stove was the answer. The picturesque was abandoned in favour of efficiency, and the couple use an Ugly Duckling wood burner designed by the DSIR which has a solid front rather than glass. Glenys' father suggested they try a motor that pulls the warm air from the roof space and pumps it back down into the lounge to recycle the heat. In summer this works in reverse and removes the heat from the house. Eventually, the couple hope to use wind as another power source.

The kitchen is the only downstairs area with wooden walls, so Glenys took the opportunity to use colour boldly. She chose a colour scheme of electric blue with red highlights. Black slate flooring not only looks stylish but again hooks into passive

solar heating.

With Glenys having had five years running her own restaurant, Glossops, in Wellington, gourmet cooking was always going to be a feature of their establishment. This is a real cook's kitchen, with masses of bench space and storage, and all the latest appliances.
The downstairs bathroom has a nautical theme, with old ships' portholes set into the walls along with two aquariums filled with cold-water fish. the old bath has been resurfaced and encased in clay for better heat retention. "That way you can stay in for longer!" says Glenys. Stained glass designed and made by Glenys adds to the marine feel of the room.

With guests using the vast living area downstairs, the couple decided their bedroom to be a hideaway where they could relax, so they created a self-contained bedroom and living area with an office and en suite bathroom accessible only through the bedroom.

While Glenys was recuperating from her back problems she made good use of her time, adding many of the decorative details around the house.Their private suite is painted in cream, dusky pink and dark green, with the dominant colour varied in each room and a stencilled grapevine design picked out in the accent colours.

Along the hall are three more guest bedrooms decorated in different styles and colours, and, upstairs, another two attic rooms. Glenys' antiques fill the house with an atmosphere of Victoriana.

Eventually, a self-contained adobe unit past the garage will also be turned to guest use and a pool is planned for the large hole left over from brick production.

after all their hard work, Glenys and Kevin are well pleased with the result. Kevin sums it all up, "We won't be shifting for a while - it's wonderful living in a house that lives and breathes!"