Back in 1995, German property developer Gabrielle Barth was one of the million or so tourists who arrived in New Zealand. But she and her late partner were so enamoured of the country that 18 months later they returned with the intention of buying land and building here. They quicklysettled on Northland rather than the central Otago region then popular with foreign buyers.
"We're from Europe, we know Switzerland very well, the South Island was similar," she says. "We settled here because the climate is a few degrees warmer than Auckland. We wanted a small piece of land, a sea view, a beautiful house, and remote. As foreigners we had to have permission. We found the bare land so we had to build our first home."
The process was a project managed by Gabrielle with a skilled group of builders and designers in Europe and here. The first plans, drawn by a German architect were all wrong for our sun orientation, so she had them redone in Kerikeri. A lucky introduction by a real estate agent to Antony Paul, a well-known New Zealand landscape architect working in Britain opened up a terrific international collaboration to make the most of the site.
Paul brought on John Duane to do the interior colours (a soft-washed palette of sea greens to complement the totara and matai timbers), and Paul's sculptor wife Hannah Pescher supplied the first of the growing collection of local and international art and sculpture that adorns the house. Many of the sustainable features the couple wanted were unknown in New Zealand at that time, so a German project manager worked with the local builders keen to up their skills.
Image 1 of 7: An international house with beautiful gardens was a first-home build 20 years ago
The house is designed as a series of large-scale pavilions, carefully arranged so each gets views of the blue waters (and dolphins) of Te Puna inlet. Paul's landscaping is a breathtaking series of rooms arranged around many water features, including a pool and spa surrounded by huge hunks of granite from Whangarei.
Because the property is on tank water (six 200,000 litre tanks), both architect and owners were keen to reticulate the rainwater, so the rills, ponds and sculpted koru gardens are all self-sustaining. Before the house was built, Gabrielle was returning to New Zealand to supervise planting of hundreds of puriri and other trees to complement the existing native bush and pohutukawa, nicely established when the house was completed in 2000.
Closer to the house, Paul specified planting of sub-tropical and dry-land plants in the garden rooms that need no irrigation.
"We could really do something special here, there was no need to go to multi-levels, everything could be on one level," says Gabrielle. "It's Asian style, with indoor-outdoor living, everything connected by a lot of glass. The roof is slate, it doesn't stick out in the landscape, it looks like it's been here forever."
"This was the beginning of our life in a new country, so we wanted to use the elements from here. The screen in our bedroom is made from local totara with flax weaving, the carvings on the main entrance door were from a carver in Whangarei.
The New Zealand wool carpets were made in Nepal. We started with Hannah's sculptures, on plinths made from local woods, and have been adding a lot of artists from here. We asked around and found people."
The house is solid plaster and block, finished with cedar and aluminium window joinery (all heated and double-glazed to European standards). Adding sandstone floors from India, grained marble in the kitchen and bathrooms, oak floors, kitchen from Italy, Gaggenau appliances, striking light fixtures from Sweden -- and furnished from around the world -- a truly international house.
The pavilions function around shared spaces -- the glass-walled entrance sitting areas, the kitchen and dining room and magnificent living room -- with quiet retreat spaces for bedrooms and bathrooms. Not needing to accommodate children, the couple luxuriated in one enormous master bedroom and bathroom in the main house. A guest house of two bedrooms and bathroom doubles as Gabrielle's office for the several months she is back here each year.
"The rooms are big, but they have a good feeling, but I am selling now because I am ready to explore new things," she says. "The nearly 18 years was an exciting time but I have decided to go."
