Coastal: Island fantasy

By VICKI HOLDER

If you've ever dined at one of Waiheke Island's restaurants and sipped on 'A Lyttle Red', you might have already chanced on the Lyttle's home. The label of the half-size wine bottle features a sketch of a pretty, timber shingled building set among grapevines.

Above the island's Church Bay, the winemaker's home is modelled on the distinctive Nantucket Island style of architecture.

When honeymooning in Nantucket Island off the coast of Cape Cod, the couple fell in love with everything they saw. Leaving their Canada home behind five years ago, Debs and Bill Lyttle came to New Zealand and discovered their dream.

Encompassing 14.16 ha of prime grape-growing land on the waterfront overlooking the Hauraki Gulf, with Auckland in the distance, this property fulfilled their every fantasy.

Here they set about creating a lifestyle retreat, growing 1.04 ha of Bordeaux-style grapevines for the Lyttle label, 1200 olive trees alongside a huge organic orchard, and a substantial vegetable and herb garden in a vine-covered arbour behind the house.

Working from photographs taken in Nantucket Island, Auckland architect Gerald Carter designed the home to face the bay. A labour of love, it's completely covered in eucalyptus shingles and built entirely of environmentally friendly materials.

A steeply pitched roof curves down across the top level to meet gracious Palladian-style porches, plastered columns with copper capitals, and oval-shaped swivel windows. Decorative flourishes are offset by white trims and copper detailing.

Inside, the finish is clean, simple and nautical. True to the Nantucket style, it features white walls, white-painted, tongue-and-groove ceilings and fluted mouldings. There are no curtains to spoil the sea views from the small-paned sash windows. Wide kauri floorboards (joists from the old Britomart building) line the living areas on the ground floor, which open from a double-height entrance hall.

Old-world character continues in the kitchen, where modern appliances are integrated behind tongue-and-groove-style cabinetry. Brass fixtures and fittings, including tapware, drawer pulls and lightfittings, were brought from the US. Occasionally, Debs and Bill cook on the old-fashioned Stanley cooker, which heats the radiators throughout the house and dries clothes on the rack above.

Off the kitchen, a semi-circular breakfast room opens to crazy paving outside through a series of french doors. The formal dining area is linked to the kitchen via a butler's pantry and bar.

Separated from the rest of the house by Bill's study, the lounge has an appropriate nautical theme. White squabs line up along a built-in window seat. French doors extend the room to a circular porch. Hanging from the ceiling, a sprung, American-style, double swing is the couple's favourite spot to sit and chat.

Stairs to another living area arrive at a mezzanine floor that links two bedroom wings. Guests can enjoy a beautiful room with shapely, coved ceilings.

Stairs continue to a third level, where a hammock is slung across a widow's walk.

What could be more romantic at the end of the day than retiring to an enormous master bedroom warmed by a log fire on winter nights? To enhance the mood, dramatic uplighting hidden in a pelmet floods across the arched ceiling. Doors open to a balcony where Debs and Bill can watch the boats in the bay. Between the his and hers dressing room, the bedroom passes to an en suite where the couple can soak in a clawfoot bath.

A home and property created by and for lovers, it has every ingredient to guarantee an everlasting honeymoon.

Vital statistics

Address: Church Bay, Waiheke Island.

Features: Nantucket Island-style home on coastal lifestyle property with sea and city views; enclosed in shelter trees; extensive living areas; two log fires; old-fashioned radiators fired by Stanley stove; two bedroom wings; large study; large studio; breakfast room; formal dining; Bordeaux-style grapevines, olive trees, organic orchard and vegetable garden; five minutes from Matiatia ferry.

Size: Land area 14.16 ha,

Floor area 371.6 sq m.

Price: $5.25 million.

Agent: Chris Palmer, Premium Real Estate, Takapuna. Ph 486 1727 bus; 09 372 5047 ah; 025 734 721 mob.