Tiny bach, big investment

The basic fibrolite bach is dwarfed by neighbouring mansions in Mt Maunganui.

When former Hamilton nurse Esme Carbon bought a small beach house at Mt Maunganui for 4600 in 1964, her father rebuked her for buying such a place "in the back of beyond".

Yesterday the basic fibro bach with magic views on a 1583sq m site stretching from Oceanbeach Rd to the seafront was passed in at auction at $3.07 million.

Miss Carbon, who died last November, had little idea what her investment along Mt Maunganui's "golden mile" was worth in her later years. Her intention all along had been to bring pleasure to three generations of her family who holidayed there for 40 years.

Last Christmas was their final summer sojourn, said niece Heather Watson who, with her brother and sister, inherited the property from their unmarried, childless aunt.

"She was a wonderful woman, one of those people who brought pleasure to others," Ms Watson said.

Miss Carbon occasionally lent the house to close friends and also to cancer patients she met through her work in the radiotherapy department of Waikato Hospital.

"She would pay for them to go there to rehabilitate.

"She never charged for anything," said Ms Watson.

"And she never said no to any of us [family members]. She did the bookings herself."

Now in her 50s, Ms Watson remembers her own childhood holidays when the area - about a five-minute drive from downtown Mt Maunganui - was "very bachy. Now it's not like it used to be."

These days the neighbourhood is built up with substantial residences and the family beach house is the only small single property on a large section.

Originally comprising a lounge and one little bedroom, a sunroom with a deck was added to the sturdy bach in the 1970s.

There is an open fireplace. And what looks like an old-fashioned longdrop at the back of the house is actually a flush toilet.

"There are five beds but we have slept up to 10 people," Ms Watson said.

She said there were 27 tents there one summer.