One of my pet peeves is people building fancy houses in pristine natural environments. Usually followed by a nice glossy spread in an architecture magazine with sentences like, “This wonderful house, designed by Mr Fancypants of Fancy Architects, blends in with its surroundings”.

Sure. Maybe it does.

But that environment will never be as beautiful again with that human containment box plonked down on it.

Talking of human-made objects being plonked, this may be the high point of plonking:

Good work, China.

Plonkers.

I guess if the planet were infinite, I wouldn’t be so bothered. But it’s not. Everywhere you look in much of the world these days, there’s a fucking house in the way.

On that subject, this news story out of New Zealand warmed my heart:

“A New Zealand farming family has gifted 900 hectares of pristine land by the edge of Lake Wakatipu to the crown, saying it is “the right thing to do”.

“The stretch of land at the foot of the Remarkables range will become open to everyone in 2022, after being handed over to the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust for “the benefit and enjoyment of all New Zealanders”.

“Remarkables station owners, Dick and Jillian Jardine, whose family have owned and worked the land for 98 years, want to see it protected and loved for another century.

“Jillian Jardine said she wanted to see the biodiversity and “iconic nature” of the land protected in perpetuity and said her family had spent four years discussing the decision.”

This is the piece of land:

Pretty gorgeous, huh?

Despite the new development going in to the right, that is.

It would be a hell of a lot better if that wasn’t about to uglify the scene forever.

I lived in Queenstown—just out of the picture around to the right—for a couple of years as a kid in the late 1980s, when it was such a tiny village it didn’t even have a supermarket! Now you have these developments going in everywhere, ripping the beauty out of the place. Some of the houses are quite nice, but some are godawful “low-cost” developments that make you want to cry.

I’m not going to lie though, despite the ongoing onslaught of housing, the region is still beautiful. Mostly. The question is: how long can it last? This absorption of human beings building fucking houses left, right and centre, people moving there because the area is so pretty, even though their 3-bedroom house is making it less pretty. Bah!

Ironically, protecting all this land under the Remarkables mountain range will probably help push up the house prices in the new subdivision to the right.

As the French would say: Pfffffff. Or, perhaps, “That looks very much like a Ponzi scheme.” (Kiwis will enjoy this little inside joke.)

Anyway, back to the glass half full. Good on Dick and Jillian Jardine for leaving this land to the people, rather than to a few 3-bedroom people. I salute you!