The need for a sea change is what brought Chris Hosking and her late husband Max to New Zealand, but the sea is not what they got. Instead, they landed alongside a lake in Kerikeri, after leaving city life in Melbourne behind them.
"We wanted to do something different and we had a couple of friends in Kerikeri so we came to suss things out," Chris says.
They liked the climate, the size of the town and the Bay of Islands, so all in all, it was an appealing location. Finding the house on the lake was the icing on the cake.
Chris had actually been keen to build or buy a small, eco-friendly home, so 300sq m of stylish living space was something of a departure from the dream.
The house charmed her with its big spaces, high ceilings and large windows.
"A very tall woman came to look at the house one day, and she stood in the kitchen and said, 'This is amazing - I don't feel tall in this house'," Chris says.
And there are eco-friendly elements about it. The exterior is dark board and batten, which allows it to sit unobtrusively in its environment. And despite its four-level design, chosen to capture the lake views from virtually every room, it's a sleek, simple house with gently pitched roofs and square lines.
A walk through is a voyage of discovery. A wide hallway with polished concrete floors and three sets of timber stairs provides access from the large entranceway and garaging at the top to the guest wing, the master suite, the media room and office, and to the living areas at the bottom.
"We had meant to buy all new furnishings for the house but there were other things to be done," Chris says. "When we bought it there was a sense that some finishing work was needed inside, and outside some of the plants needed pruning."
Chris and Max put dimmers on the lights and added beautiful David Trubridge light fittings throughout the kitchen, dining and sitting areas. "And I bought one new sofa," Chris smiles.
Image 1 of 6: 49E Stanners Rd, Kerikeri.
Right below, the chef's kitchen is somewhat wasted on Chris, who's not a passionate cook, but it has a serious workout over Christmas when six or seven friends, all foodies, took over and allowed it to prove itself.
It's an ideal house for entertaining, with a two-bedroom, one-bathroom guest wing in the main house, and a separate cottage in the garden.
The garden is something else she has enjoyed, developing it in a serene, uncluttered style with splashes of colour from hibiscus and vireyas. She walks around the property every day, inspecting her plants and enjoying the birdlife.
"The people who live on this lake all love the birdlife so it draws us all together in a very positive way. And having come from Melbourne, which was not long out of a seven-year drought, having all this water around is heaven."
