Gay Greig's waterfront house was built on the site of an old bach. There were a lot of baches on Herald Island in the days when the island was only accessible by sea.
A causeway connects the island to the mainland now and the Northwestern Motorway is just up the road so it only takes her 20 minutes to get to Ponsonby in off-peak traffic, and hardly any time to get to the cafes at Whenuapai.
The Greigs built this house 14 years ago and Gay had only a few requests. She didn't want sun flooding the lounge in summer, because that would be too hot, and so the house is cosy in winter and cool in the summer.
She also wanted it to be able to sleep five people upstairs (the master bedroom with walk-in wardrobe and en suite with sea views is on the ground floor and there are two bedrooms and a living area and kitchenette upstairs) and it had to be large enough to soak up her large family of children and grandchildren when everyone gathered around.
Gay sits by the french doors in the open-plan kitchen/lounge/dining room soaking up the winter rays with the sea lapping the stone wall just across her lawn.
The water is just about on your doorstep, she agrees, and she also agrees living here is like being on holiday year round.
A special treat are the dolphins which come to visit: "It's just the delight of my life. One time I was here and the dolphins came in and they were herding fish just down the bottom of where I live here -- I've got steps down -- and so I walked down the steps and the dolphins were about this far away from me.
"They were literally on the doorstep, they were just opening their mouths and eating the fish."
She has a little beach and says she swims all summer off her own property.
If the setting is idyllic when the tide is in, Gay also loves it when the water is out because there is always something going on.
"I just love the birdlife. It changes all the time with the sea. You have the resident gulls, of course, and the shags come in and fish at certain times of the year, and then you get all the pied stilts and things coming in at various times. Around February you get migrating birds on their way to Miranda on the Firth of Thames."
Image 1 of 9: This seaside gem engages with nature year-round, -- yet is within easy distance of the CBD
There are snapper out there, too, and locals often take their kayaks out and fish.
Gay loves all the features of the house, which has a big deck and an interesting roofline you can see when you swim. There are windows everywhere, including above the stairs, and sets of windows near the ceiling in the lounge, which means when she is by the fire she can watch the moon come up.
The golden, polished macrocarpa floors are matched by the macrocarpa ceiling and bring a warm glow to the space. Gay loves the sociability and village feel of Herald Island -- they even have a Christmas parade on Christmas morning and the local hall is a magnet for village life.
"It's a different atmosphere to most places and I regret very much that I'm leaving. It's getting too hard to keep the garden and everything going."
Gay is moving to an apartment in Orewa, where she will still have sea views but is a bit sad she won't have the water quite on her doorstep.
