CONTACT:
Gary and Lucy Douglas, Bayleys, 021 968 888 and 021 735 738.
Robert Dawe has a great eye for horses and says, really, he should live in the Waikato.
He's a bloodstock agent and a publisher but loves the beach and the north, so he and wife Lesley are selling their Albany townhouse to live at their Omaha beach house.
They have loved the lock-up-and-leave nature of their home, which fronts a block of townhouses and has an extra-large patio and lawn area.
Lesley will miss her garden and says Robert would have horses in it if he could: "It would be good fertiliser for the garden, anyway."
The location has been great for Robert -- who spends a lot of time travelling to Karaka, known for horse studs -- as it's close to motorways.
The property is fully fenced, made of solid brick and an easy walk from the Albany shops. It's also surprisingly large inside with four bedrooms upstairs and plenty of storage cupboards.
The master bedroom has a balcony and en suite and Robert recalls getting a hell of a shock a few years back when he was looking out an upstairs bedroom window and and saw a tornado ripping through Albany.
"I used to walk from my office while I was on the phone and one day I was here and I thought 'there's a fire over there, there's this great big funnel of smoke going all the way up' and then it was moving. I stood here and watched it, you know, all this stuff was flying up in the air."
But it's very peaceful, he says, and a great place to live. He and Lesley used to live up the road in a big house in the bush, but downsized in 2007.
They saw the townhouses being built and Robert was friends with a real estate agent who lived across the road in "old, new" houses, which are new builds designed to look like old-style bungalows.
"I said to him, 'Just go knock on the door of these houses here'. I said, 'This will be ideal for our lifestyle', which it is.
'"The street wasn't here when we used to live up the road. Over the road where the shops are there used to be this country market shop, it used to sell produce, there used to be hay bales on the floor."
Albany has come on a lot with all the new housing and shops: "Albany used to be a little village, but now it's part of Auckland. We bought this and the beach house at the same time."
They wanted a low maintenance base and when Robert worked from home "it was just so simple, now you've got the shopping malls and the closeness of everything".
There's a shortcut down the road to the shops, across a walking bridge spanning Lucas Creek.
Image 1 of 5: Lots of space in old Albany village is ideal for families and motorway-hopping city workers
"You just walk over the bridge and you're in the village."
Robert also loves the patio where they have a big table and chairs set up from where he can sit outside and still watch the TV in the lounge when there's racing on.
"We walk the beach [Omaha] every day -- my walking block is about 10 or 12 km."
When the couple moves Lesley will miss the house, because it's so handy to everything.
"I like all the shops around and having everything on your doorstep. Our daughter's just bought down the road and I've booked my bedroom down there. I'll miss my garden."
