“We kind of always thought that was going to be it, and an opportunity to buy into that farm was going to be achievable.
She said all of a sudden they didn’t know what to do.
“When you lose your goal, you kind of lose a sense of purpose, and we wanted to try and find a purpose again.”
After the April 2025 sale, Hayden took a farm manager’s job in Feilding, and Anastasia stayed on the family farm until January 2026, when she would commute back while they still had the lease until May.
She said they looked into buying a house and put in a tender for a small piece of land to rear calves.
“Nothing really felt right; we didn’t feel right in Manawatū, and we didn’t have any solution.
“If you stayed there, it’s like a reminder of what could have been or what you thought was going to be.”
Anastasia said they decided at the start of the year to live in a caravan and in March “pulled the trigger” and bought their “tiny house on wheels”.
Hayden Tristram, from left with daughters Kiara Tristram and Ariella Tristram, who have settled into their new caravan life.
“This has been the only decision that has felt right.”
She said after moving out of their house on September 6, they have had valuable caravan life lessons.
“Don’t park in the shade, carry some hose fittings, be mindful of your electricity outputs and just relax into it.”
Their goal now was to find work on different types of farms despite only working with sheep and beef.
“We want to do farm contracting, and there is a couple of barriers that farm contracting will offer on the road.
“One is that people won’t know us, and two is accommodation.”
Anastasia said they addressed these with the self-contained caravan and posting their journey to social media.
Their Facebook page Caravan2Farm has amassed 5500 followers.
“We have had to turn down more work than we have been able to accept.”
They have work secured until February 2027 on a sheep and beef farm, helping with dairy grazers, work on a duck farm, and Anastasia has a couple of months’ work as an outdoor instructor on the Boyle River near Hanmer Springs.
They also want to work in orchards and help with a grape harvest.
“We are so open to what we don’t know…if we can learn something on the road that we can turn into profitable knowledge for our own bit of land one day.
“I don’t see us stopping unless the right opportunity appears.”
Michaela Gower joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke’s Bay news and loves sharing stories about farming and rural communities.