Husband and wife Justin Browne and Katy Gwilliam have been granted resource consent to build a garage at their Loach Rd property in Hawea Flat, to run their existing small-scale organic grocery distribution centre from home and provide retail sales via a weekly farmers market.
Ms Gwilliam bought the grocery home-delivery business Organic Express in May, shortly after she and Mr Browne moved from Auckland to the Upper Clutha, where Ms Gwilliam grew up, to escape the rat race and raise their son Deacon (19 months) near his grandparents.
While the business is Ms Gwilliam's venture, Mr Browne, a former project manager for high-end homes in Auckland, helps out with packing the goods and doing the weekly delivery runs to homes in Queenstown and Wanaka, and overseeing the construction of the building.
Most of the produce comes from Christchurch or Oamaru, but the couple hope to introduce more local suppliers once the distribution centre opens early next year. At present, they operate out of a temporary warehouse in Wanaka.
The distribution service will make up 90% of the business, then for several hours, two days a week, the pair plan to open their home-based distribution centre to the public, who will be able to buy goods directly from the site.
They are also inviting other Central Otago residents to set up their locally grown produce and craft stalls at the site in a farmers market setting.
Ms Gwilliam has always had a keen interest in organic and local produce.
"For a lot of people, it's about health, it's about not having stuff that's sprayed and that hasn't been genetically modified," she said.
"For me, it's more about the environment ... just being able to source stuff that's more local as opposed to getting apples that have come from California. To keep the food miles down, that's something that I've always been quite passionate about."
The couple have been inundated with positive feedback from Hawea Flat residents who are looking forward to the convenience and avoiding a more than 10km drive to Hawea or Wanaka to buy groceries.
"They're just really stoked there's something here in Hawea Flat now because it does get tricky when you're halfway through getting the dinner and you realise you're missing the key ingredients, because it's not like you can just zip down to the store," Ms Gwilliam said.
The couple say they love the change of pace their new lifestyle has provided.
