THE NAUTILUS,
TAMARIKI DRIVE,
OREWA
KEY POINTS:
When traffic gets increasingly built up around Auckland, it can cast a pall over the thought of escaping the city for a holiday weekend. So it occurred to Marlene and Bill Carson that rather than buy a holiday house at Mount Maunganui and spend more than three hours
commuting there, they should look closer to home. The 3km of unspoiled beach of Orewa and the lock-up-and-leave ease of an apartment sold them on the Nautilus.
The complex is only a block across the road from the beach and, from their seventh floor apartment, the couple can scan the surf and weather conditions before heading out for the day.
"It is so easy being so close to Auckland," says Marlene. "You can extend your holidays because you know if anything comes up you can be back in town in half an hour, off peak. It's great for the grandchildren to pop up to stay."
The couple elected for a corner apartment, its unusual angles making its 96 sq m seem more spacious. A covered balcony which acts as a second living room extends that feeling. Windows and doors are carefully placed so that the couple can lie in bed and see the sea, while the second bedroom comfortably fits twin beds for the kids.
Bathrooms are attractively appointed with mosaic tile and quality cabinets, with one holding a laundry-in-a-cupboard. The smartly designed Italian kitchen even has space for another convenience-in-a-cupboard - a fully wired office for those who want to extend that holiday feeling and tele-commute from the beach.
Marlene and Bill have gotten to know the neighbourhood well, pointing out the best cafe for breakfast and their favourite Japanese restaurant. The shopping centre still has the charms of a small town, albeit with a myriad of coffee places and some smart boutiques.
The local farmers' market runs every Sunday morning and it's a short trip north to the Matakana markets, vineyards and attractions, or the golf courses, Snow Planet and Waiwera hot springs for the more actively inclined. But guests and residents of The Nautilus don't need to move out of the building to enjoy the heated swimming pool, spa, jogging track, gymnasium and sauna. There's also an outdoor barbeque area set amid landscaped gardens on the podium floor overlooking the town centre and beach.
And owners don't need to worry about their beach place when they travel further afield. The apartments are managed and let to holiday-makers in a pool so that they can earn money too: the Carsons' one is regularly let to a European couple for two months every year. Furniture packages, cleaners and on-site management make this a no-worry option for owners. Other owners use the apartments as their four-day-weekender, living the kind of lifestyle Kiwis used to have to travel to the Gold Coast to find.
But the couple also own a boat, which has been neglected these past summers, so they are selling up to spend more time on the water. Agent Janne Adams has this apartment on offer, plus others, with or without furniture packages.