SCHOOL ZONES:
Silverdale School (until a proposed zoning change in May), Orewa College.
CONTACT:
Graeme Mann, Bayleys, 09 947 5263 or 0274 500 589, or Karen Asquith, 09 947 5256 or 027 529 2049.
When you've lived on your own private island in Fiji, it's hard to find a home to equal it.
This was the enviable problem Ross and Jenni Allen faced after they left the tropical paradise they'd developed into a resort so small and exclusive that they turned away Tom Hanks because his entourage was too large.
A little while later the Kiwi couple found themselves living on their boat at Westhaven Marina, and then in a succession of one-bedroom homes in Auckland. Every time Ross came home, he felt like he was being locked into a box.
The keen boaties hankered for a home beside the water but everything they looked at seemed hemmed in and lacking in privacy.
Then one day, about seven years ago, a real estate friend called. He'd found a property in Stillwater, a quiet rural enclave between the East Coast Bays and the Whangaparaoa Peninsula, that they might be interested in.
At 5.5ha, the property was bigger than their Fijian island. Its waterfront position down a long drive off a gated private access road at the end of a country road in a little-known area was about as private as an Auckland address got.
Formerly farmland, it had been planted with tens of thousands of trees and bushes, including three orchards, and was crisscrossed by walkways and bridges. Its riparian rights and slipway, wharf and jetty into Duck Creek, meant they could be on the Hauraki Gulf in minutes.
The property had been lovingly developed from bare farmland by timber man Bob Woolston, and his influence was especially evident in the one-level cedar home.
Oregon beams in the conservatory came from the Moerewa freezing works, and heart-rimu floorboards were salvaged from the old Westfield freezing works in South Auckland.
Image 1 of 11: Only an exceptional property was good enough after living on an island. They found it on the water's edge. Photos / Michelle Hyslop
A kauri beam in the kitchen once stood in the old Whangarei Post Office; the internal and wardrobe doors are solid rimu, and roof shingles are Canadian cedar.
It was perhaps fitting, then, that the few changes Ross and Jenni have made since they bought the property included adding more timber, in the form of a deck the size of a small home, including a covered outdoor room complete with fireplace.
The deck, which gives way to a lawn that rolls down to the water, put the finishing touch on a home that was designed to soak up its sun, serenity and outlook.
Bifolds off the living rooms and master bedroom open to the northeast-facing deck, and when the tide is in Ross and Jenni wake to the sun sparkling across the creek.
A private one-bedroom guest suite tucked into the back of the house has its own north-facing deck, which leads to a corner of the property Jenni calls her "secret garden". It was once planted with veges, but they proved too much of a temptation for pukeko, so now it's an English cottage-style plot with roses, lavender and rosemary.
Jenni and Ross love that the property changes with the tides, seasons, and visiting bird and aquatic life.
"There's always something flowering, there's always something that you can pick or put in a vase," she says.
They've decided it's time for a change, and are selling up and scaling down so they can spend more time in their motorhome. They're not sure where they'll end up, but Ross is a little nervous.
"I don't know how I'm going to get on if I can hear the kids next door sneezing. Here, no one knows we're here, and we can do our own thing. When the gates shut behind you it's like we're on another island."
