Mission Bay: Retro cool

Heat up the fondue, mix a martini and check the shipping news at this hillside spread.

43a Marau Crescent, Mission Bay. Warner King must have picked up a new sense of scale from living in the United States for 35 years. The home he returned to Auckland to build has a feel of that continent's expansiveness.

Stretched along the hillside behind Mission Bay village, it meets King's brief to his architect that there must be "a view from every room". The main and secondary living areas, a study and two bedrooms all open onto a sweeping deck the size of a small house. All look straight down the Waitemata shipping channel, and to Rangitoto standing guard beside it.

But it is the design of the house that is equally breathtaking. Built in 1976 to a Vlad Cacala design, it is an untouched example of retro cool. Surfaces are dressed in native veneer, all the doors are 2.5m high from floor to ceiling, and the ceilings are sprayed plaster in a roughcast finish. A circular table in the lounge beneath an arced silver lamp, and wrapped by low couches, begs for a fondue set.

The custom-built oval dining table is surrounded by chairs covered in a canvas-type fabric bearing a 70s tubular design. Doors in a wall fold back to reveal a lit bar. Downstairs, through a self-contained living or games area, is the pool. It has a diving board at one end, and at more than 3m deep seems cavernous when empty.

"Dad just wanted a pool that he and his friends could dive into and not hit their heads," laughs his daughter Sonia.

Sonia has returned from her home in Dallas, Texas, to sell the house. Her beloved father died in April, and although she has visited New Zealand up to four times a year since she was 12 to see first her grandmother, then her dad after her parents divorced, she can't justify keeping the house now Warner has gone.

"I've been sitting at Daddy's desk and I can see what he meant when I called him every day over summer and asked him how things were, and he'd look out at the view and say 'Just another day in paradise'."

Sonia fulfilled his wishes by having his ashes scattered over Rangitoto, upon which he looked from nearly every room in his house every day for nearly 30 years. Only from the master bedroom is the view broken by a giant phoenix palm, one of three that Warner planted as babies all those years ago.

"Dallas is inland, so I love looking at this harbour view when I come out here," says Sonia, a mosaic artist who travels the world giving talks and classes. "You see every ship that comes in and out of the harbour, the ferries going back and forth, and the yachts cruising and racing."

She also enjoys her daily walks around the waterfront.

Back on the deck, Sonia reminisces about the "big Texas barbecues" her father used to cook, and the parties that spilled between house, deck and pool.

"There's still three giant sacks of charcoal downstairs if the new owner wants them," she laughs.

Although the site is zoned for up to three units, Sonia quietly hopes a developer doesn't pull down this glorious example of 70s design that her father preserved.

"What I'd like to see is someone build the mystery third level we always thought about. There's room to go higher, and I'd love to see the view from up there."

Vital Statistics

SIZE: Land 989sq m, house 370sq m, deck 95sq m.

PRICE INDICATION: Interest expected above $2.5 million. Auction June 25.

INSPECT: Sat/Sun 1-2pm.

CONTACT: Di Hall, LJ Hooker, ph 575 9119 bus, 0274 905 899 mob.

FEATURES: Vlad Cacala-designed home in pristine 70s condition, complete with period furniture and light fittings if new owners want them. Formal and informal living areas, self-contained accommodation or games area downstairs, central heating; wine cellar, safe, swimming pool with diving board, panoramic sea views and one street back from Tamaki Drive. Zoning allows for possible 3 unit development.