Heraldhomes editor Estelle Sarney looks back on properties for sale that have fascinated readers and made news.
The home Sir Edmund Hillary built for his family was his private sanctuary for 50 years, but it created public debate when it was sold in March.
Sir Edmund and Lady Hillary's neighbour, multimillionaire and former New Zealand cricketer Terry Jarvis, bought the property for $1.9 million with a view to extending his grounds, but many New Zealanders baulked at the idea that Sir Edmund's home might be demolished.
Jarvis says he had a number of applications from individuals and organisations willing to take the house, and this month gifted it to Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate in South Auckland. The low-decile school with a multi-racial student population will use the house as a leadership centre, replicating the fittings and layout of Sir Edmund's study. The house will also be available to the community.
Sir Edmund built the house in 1956, three years after he climbed Mt Everest. He and his first wife, Louise, raised their three children there, and planned Sir Edmund's expeditions and charity work. It became a refuge for Sir Edmund after Louise and daughter Belinda died in a plane crash in 1975, a place where he began a new phase of his life with second wife Lady June, and a much-loved grandfather's house.
The land originally belonged to Louise's parents, Jim and Phyllis Rose. When their daughter married Ed, they subdivided off part of their section for the newlyweds to build a house.
In 1957, when the family moved in, the house was considered modern. It was designed by architect firm Gummer & Ford, the name behind other well-known Auckland buildings such as the Winter Gardens in the Domain and the Dilworth Trust Building on the corner of Queen St.
The firm's modernist approach is subtle, with a floor-to-ceiling sliding door opening the combined dining and living room to a patio, and a double-height foyer marking the home's entry.
The dining and living room still has its parquet floor, while a sliding door separates the lounge from what began as a granny flat for Ed's mother, Gertrude. It later became Ed's office.
This opens on to a long patio, which continues to a deck, on which Sir Ed and Lady June hosted many parties.
On the top level are two bedrooms, the bathroom and the master suite. All the bedrooms look out to the view that Ed loved throughout his life. In his last years, he spent a lot of time looking out his bedroom window. From there, high on the Remuera ridge, the mountaineer could look through the Himalayan pine he had planted at the bottom of his garden years before to Rangitoto and the Waitemata Harbour, where his ashes are now scattered.
* Sold by David Rainbow and Joneen Smith, Bayleys, for $1.9 million.
