My home patch: Enjoying country quietness in city

Annabel Moodie loves living next to the Dingle Dell Reserve. Picture / Dean Purcell

When Annabel Moodie arrived in St Heliers four years ago she loved it so much she bought the flat next door. Two years later she bought a third apartment in the terrace block of four.
Her dream? To buy the last one.

Moodie enjoys St Heliers in general and Dingle Dell, where her home borders the bush reserve, in particular.

On the day we visit, the bell birds, tuis and wood pigeons are calling from the bush, there's Vivaldi on the stereo and a tortoiseshell cat flopped like a striped sweater on the outside table.

Yet a six-minute drive up the hill and Moodie can be fighting for a trolley at the supermarket in Eastridge: three minutes downhill she's in a cafe at St Heliers. And, she says, she can be at work at the airport in exactly half an hour.

An international flight attendant with Air NZ and former ironwoman, Moodie likes sprinting down to St Heliers for a swim. "At 7 in the evening, when the tide's in, it's gorgeous - and sometimes I'm the only person on the beach. It's hard to believe I'm in a big city.

"I often go down to the village in my running tights and no-one takes any notice. You feel as though you're always on holiday here."

She loves not having to wait for traffic lights on her 45-minute run to Achilles Pt above Ladies and Gentlemen's Bays (two of Auckland's earliest nude beaches) and the quiet.

"You can't tell what time it is because there's no traffic noise, it goes right over our heads."

The area makes sense economically too. When Moodie bought her first one-bedroom flat in 2001, she paid $230,000. The second flat, a two-bedroom version where she still lives, cost $360,000 a year later. She purchased the third, another one-bedroom variation, in 2004 for $330,000. Last month she was offered $440,000 for her own place.

"People are very keen to live here, so they pay premium prices," she says. "And that's reflected in rentals as well."

Both smaller apartments fetch $375 a week, and both are rented by young professional couples who run and cycle in their spare time. "They like to be close to the park and beach," she says. "It's surprising how many young people want to live in St Heliers."

The terrace of flats is unusual for Dingle Dell. Most houses here are large and palatial, set on big sections overlooking the bush.

Most are occupied by families who've been here between nine and 29 years, there are many more young couples than you'd expect, and neighbours are old-fashioned friendly. "We get together for a drink quite often," says Moodie.

As for safety, she says the last burglary was nine years ago, possibly thanks to her neighbour's alsatian cross dog which also patrols her property.

Her flat borders the 6.4ha reserve of Dingle Dell, which occupies a shallow bushy gully threaded with streams and walking and running tracks.

The Dell is fringed by Fern Glen, Parkside and Dingle Rds and Woodside Cres.

In 1842, it was part of a farm owned by Major Thomas Banbury and almost 90 years later the title of the reserve was transferred to city council.

From the '50s it was tended, nurtured and replanted by the St Heliers Beautifying Society, personified by the forceful Miss Winnifred Huggins.

Known as the Tree Lady, Miss Huggins reputedly stood up to local MP and fearsome Prime Minister Rob Muldoon and guarded this last stand of mature bush in the eastern suburbs with passion and energy.

Even today fierce wars are waged in St Heliers over, say, the proposed demolition of its hump backed bridge.

In the '70s, subdivision of properties that fringe the reserve was prohibited in order to preserve the park-like quality of the area.

And, says Moodie, who sometimes takes her dinner guests for a walk between the main course and dessert to see the glow worms, the protective measures have succeeded.

"It's our hidden secret, the last thing you'd expect to find in the middle of the city."

LOVES AND HATES

Loves:

* The quiet, lack of traffic - and traffic noise, friendly neighbours, bush walks, beach, cafes.

Hates:

* Big bush spiders, leaves in autumn.


 


WHO LIVES WHERE


* Super central: Auckland City includes CBD, Newton, Grafton, Viaduct. Attracts: Students, retirees, businesspeople, investors. $500,000 buys: 5 sardine can apartments; 2 bearable apartments; 1 larger Viaduct apartment. Best buying: solid apartments near university, Queen St.


* City fringe: Ponsonby includes St Marys, Herne and Freemans Bays. Attracts: Cafe lovers who like the idea of walking to work and young families who own their own homes. $500,000 buys: three-quarters of a 3-bedroom character villa originally built for lowly paid city workers.


* Still on the way up - just. Grey Lynn includes Westmere, Pt Chevalier and Arch Hill. Attracts: young families, doer-uppers. $500,000 buys: a 2-bedroom cottage.


* Way to go: Kingsland includes Eden Tce, Western Springs, Morningside. Attracts: bargain-hunters, buy-to-renters. $500,000 buys: 3-bedroom house (if you're lucky).


* Established and affluent: Mt Eden, includes Sandringham, Balmoral and Three Kings. Attracts: Young marrieds and older looking for its relaxed village feel and good schools. $500,000 buys: 3-bedroom house but not in the grammar zone - the same house in the zone is $800,000 plus.


* Upmarket shopping, classy feel, Newmarket and Parnell. Attracts: Professionals, old money, retirees, students. $500,000 buys: two- bedroom apartment, with change; half stand-alone house.


* Underrated: Remuera. Attracts: Doctors, professionals with Grammar-aged children, old and new money. $500,000 buys: a slightly tired townhouse; half a renovated bungalow.


* Genteel: Epsom. Attracts: Families with secondary school children, young professionals, ex-pats. $500,000 buys: one-third of a large house in grammar zone; two-bedroom unit (with change).


* One step down: Meadowbank includes St Johns and Ellerslie. Attracts: middle class and older families. $500,000 buys: 4-bedroom newish house; half a house with a view.


* And Mt Albert includes St Lukes and Owairaka. $500,000 buys: ex-state house (with $100,000 change); half a house in the Golden Triangle which includes Allendale Rd, Stilwell Rd and Summit Drive.


* Seaside: Mission Bay, includes Kohimarama, St Heliers, Orakei, Glendowie. Attracts: generations of families, professionals and retirees, ex-pats, migrants. $500,000 buys: ex-state house on a half site; a new townhouse.


* Great buying: Avondale, includes Rosebank and Waterview. Attracts: first-home buyers, professionals, Pacific Islanders. $500,000 buys: two 2-bedroom townhouses, one 3-bedroom older house.


* Hidden treasures: Blockhouse Bay, includes Wesley, New Windsor and Lynfield. Attracts: first-home buyers, professionals, investors. $500,000 buys: older, renovated weatherboard home.


* Do-Up central: Onehunga, includes Te Papapa, Oranga and Penrose. Attracts: families, investors. $500,000 buys: renovated villa on full site.


* Extra research from Where to live in Auckland (Barbican Publishing $39.99).