Picture this. After leaving your kids behind, you end up in a courthouse of a small farming town with a population of 900, in another country, 3000km away from home.
Will you ever go home? Do you regret your decision? What have you done?
For Sarah, this is real.
She won’t go home for a while. And she’s gone over and over that decision.
“I will never forget bawling my eyes out flying across the Tasman wondering if we had made a terrible mistake,” she tells Place Journal from the courthouse.
She sleeps in the defendant’s room, and has coffee where the judge sat.
“My husband sold his financial planning business and I had put my professional organising business on hold,” she adds.
Why did you do it, Sarah?
“We made the move for a number of reasons, for something fun and different, for a midlife adventure, to live amongst the mountains and to work on a renovation project together,” she answers.
Huh?
Is that a crime punishable by law in New Zealand?
“We found a 100-year-old weatherboard Courthouse in the little farming town of Fairlie, in the beautiful MacKenzie District of South Canterbury,” Sarah continues.
“It ceased being a working courthouse in the 70’s and since then has been a holiday house for two families to spend their ski holidays.
“We knew renovations were needed and I immediately had a vision in mind.”
There is a courtroom in another country in this story. There were kids left behind, too. And definitely tears.
But this is no nightmare, this is all part of a long-held dream of Sarah and her husband.
Don’t worry, the kids – of adult age – are fine.
“The move wasn’t a spur of the moment thing,” Sarah explains.
“It was something we had been dreaming of for about five years, Covid delayed it somewhat but it all felt meant to be timewise.
“Of course there is no real perfect time, we have ageing parents and that is always on our minds.
“But knew we needed to do it now while we still had the energy and passion and before grandchildren came along that would send us back over the ditch.”
The trip over the ditch, specifically, in the first place was from Adelaide, the pair selling their family home of 25 years, a Queen Anne Villa in the city’s lush eastern suburbs, for a new adventure in a small town on New Zealand’s south island.
Fairlie, sometimes referred to as the gateway to the Mackenzie District – one of the most visited and photographed regions in the country – is located between Christchurch and Queenstown and becomes a ski town during the winter.
“It was both terrifying and exciting,” Sarah admits.
After spending time in Fairlie after high school on a rural exchange, Sarah already had some “beautiful memories” of the area.
But they took a chance on the Courthouse itself.
“My husband found it when he was trawling the real estate pages online, he casually showed me, thinking I wouldn’t be one bit interested,” Sarah recalls.
“But as soon as I saw it I knew and said ‘that’s it, that’s the one’ and from then on enquiries were made, we had a virtual tour, a building inspection done and bought it sight unseen.
“I thought I’d only leave the old house to go to the nursing home, but new dreams come up and life is short so we took the leap and honestly now we are here, we are so glad we did.”
So are we, because to say the renovation of the Courthouse in New Zealand is unique would be an understatement.
There have been no major structural or floor plan changes, but the couple have started to bring this place back to life, while still paying homage to the history and significance of this small town landmark.
Not that it was dead.
To clarify, there are no dead people, or crimes being committed, in this story.
“When I think of a courthouse, I think of a masculine type of house and moody interiors,” Sarah says of her initial vision of this project.
“I want to pay homage to the ski fields nearby, the mountains and all the outdoor activities that surround this area.
“The Mackenzie District has a huge Scottish influence, which I remember fondly from my time here as a teenager, so tartan, celtic, ski lodge vibes were running through my head.”
The two bedrooms, previously the judge’s office and the aforementioned defendant’s room, have been restored and given a “simple country style feel’.
“They are both have a lovely serene, calm feel to them and are a dream to sleep in,” a proud Sarah explains.
“I have kept all the moodiness and drama to the Courtroom and entry, letting the bedrooms be a place of serenity.”
That entry, where the defendant would once arrive for trial, is now a mudroom, one very much needed in the mountains.
But the main courtroom, one that has hosted a villain or two over time, is the hero.
Like it would’ve been 40 years ago, it’s full of character – and high ceilings.
The wood panelling – a common feature in buildings of this type in New Zealand and one that caught Sarah’s eye when she first saw it – was delicately, and sometimes painfully, refurbished to delightful effect.
“It’s most definitely my favourite space,” Sarah admits.
“It just has so much history yet at the same time is just so calming.
“Having a cup of coffee every morning on the judge’s bench looking out to the snow-capped mountains is everything I dreamed it would be.
“I just love the feeling that we are the new custodians of such an important heritage building.
“It has a beautiful feel to it, it’s warm, and it’s cosy and it just feels very special knowing we are treating it with the respect it deserves.
“Talking to the locals, it is a building they all know and love, some telling me great stories of their time spent here, either in court or having a very late night here."
The defendant returning to their room?
Now there’s a sequel we’d be interested in.
Guilty as charged.
Words: Jordan Pinto
Photography: @SarahShanahan
WHAT THEIR PLACE TAUGHT THEM
Patience is the key.
It has taught us to be patient, live in it in each season to see where the sun comes in, how it feels etc. I want to take our time with this special building. We want to do it right and enjoy with family and friends for years to come and we want the town to know that it’s in good hands.
Scroll through to see what their place looked like before