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Perched on a hill surrounded by bush with the sea lapping at the foot of his land, NBR publisher Barry Colman couldn't think of anywhere he'd rather be than his Glendowie home at the end of a day in the city.
Colman bought the Auckland property in 1989, becoming the third owner since it was built as a holiday home in 1925 for a family living in Grafton. In the mid 90s, when his late wife, Cushla Martini, was about to restore the house, Colman realised a neighbouring property was about to be sold and redeveloped - so he bought that too.
The combined properties gives him 2450sq metres of seclusion running down to a private, sandy beach with views out to Brown's Island and the Gulf beyond.
The old house used to be the only one on a large belt of land along the Glendowie ridge. The original owners spent weekends and holidays at the house before Tamaki Drive was built.
In those days eastern suburbs residents either had to come by boat or along a dirt track which later became Riddell Rd.
It was along that track that timber for the house, and a bunkhouse at the back for the children, was hauled by draught horses.
Martini, known for her skill at restoration, began a $5 million restoration of the property and grounds in 1995, extending the house and adding a heated indoor pool behind.
Now the house has five bedrooms, with a huge master suite upstairs opening on to balconies, a lift connecting the three levels, a library and several gracious living areas.
Martini, who died in 2005, went on to restore the 1876 Carey's Bay Historic Hotel in Port Chalmers, famous for its collection of Ralph Hotere paintings, and several other historic buildings in the town.
Colman says he never tires of the view of Brown's Island from his Glendowie home.
"The shadows of the crater change all day as the sun shifts," he says.
The house, sheltered from the prevailing wind, enjoys its own micro climate, enabling Colman to grow bananas in the garden.
"What appeals to me is that you would never know you were in a city of a million people," he says. "You can't hear any road noise, just birds and the waves lapping."
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In the gardens of Wexford Stables, the home of Lance and Bridgette O'Sullivan, is a special woodland created by Lance's mother Marie. It is here, by the pond with its tiny jetty, a horseshoe-shaped stone wall covered in climbing roses, a sundial and doves and white pigeons cooing, that Bridgette O'Sullivan likes to take a few minutes' timeout from a schedule that, at times, has her galloping as fast as one of her trainer husband's horses.
The family home at the 400-acre Wexford Stables was built 35 years ago by the O'Sullivan seniors, David and Marie. It has been the younger O'Sullivans' home for two years now since David and Marie moved away to build themselves a new home.
At the time Bridgette and Lance were living on a 36-acre lifestyle block nearby with their two daughters, Caitlin, 10, and Georgiam 8. When Lance's brother Paul went to Hong Kong to train several years ago, Lance decided to come out of retirement as a jockey to oversee the training of 60 horses in the family business.
But it meant O'Sullivan was out the door before 4am every morning and arrived home exhausted.
"The girls and I just weren't seeing him. It was very hard because we've always been so close," Bridgette O'Sullivan says.
In the end Lance's parents suggested the young family move into the family home at Wexford Stables, the place where Lance grew up, surrounded by horses, and where he and Bridgette got married in the grounds 12 years ago. The move put paid to plans to build a glamorous 770sq metre home on the lifestyle block.
Instead the same architect drew up plans for a major renovation of the Wexford Stables home. But now those plans too will be shelved. The couple recently bought a 500-acre farm, between Matamata and Cambridge, a place Lance O'Sullivan has always admired.
It is here that the couple will finally build their dream home once they get possession of the property in June. But the original architectural plans won't work because the building site faces in a different direction.
In the meantime the O'Sullivans will stay at Wexford Stables, a place Bridgette describes as a comfortable, practical family home with plenty of space for the girls' horses, their two dogs, two cats and a budgie.
"It was a very good move for us."
The next set of plans will be scaled down to more of a comfortable family home size. Laughs O'Sullivan, "Less to vacuum."
But the property will still have a grand entrance and a fern grotto with a spring, glowworms and a waterfall.
