Artist Transforms Old Caravan Into Garden Rainbow

When Vicky White's old storage caravan started looking shabby in her Wairoa backyard, a friend suggested something better than a fresh coat of paint.

White had moved back to New Zealand from Canada a few years earlier, traveling the country in a converted bus while searching for the right place to settle. She found it in Wairoa, where she bought just over 400 square meters of land with a friend.

The property came with challenges. "The land was plain grass over clay and every time it rained, even a bit, the place flooded," White explains. Her solution was to plant trees, lots of them.

Five years later, she's transformed the small plot into a flourishing food forest. Persimmons, figs, apples, feijoas, grapes, peaches, cape gooseberries, raspberries, and even bananas now grow where grass once struggled to survive.

White built a tiny house on the property measuring just 5 meters by 2.5 meters. The old caravan she'd picked up became her storage shed, but after years of use it needed attention.

That's when local artist Rebecca Stone stepped in. Stone asked White to list her favorite things from the property and surrounding nature.

The resulting mural bursts with pīwakawaka (fantails), sunflowers, tūī birds, tree dahlias, banana fronds, mushrooms, and echinaceas. Stone even painted both sides of the door so the design flows seamlessly whether open or closed.

Sunny's Take

White says she loves driving onto her property just to see the vibrant colors. "It's the view from my tiny house and my deck. Even on a wet day it's so bright and cheerful."

The transformation caught more than just White's eye. The cheerful caravan became a runner-up in NZ Gardener's Resene Shed of the Year 2026 competition, earning White a $500 voucher and a year's subscription to the magazine.

What started as a bare patch of flooding clay has become a productive garden paradise with artwork to match.