Scott Lawrie runs his business from the top of a hill in a 1.61ha "paddock" overlooking the sea.
If that sounds rustic, Scott's home is anything but.
The stylish house he built, made of steel to reflect the farming buildings of the area, featured on Grand Designs NZ and has been written about in magazines and newspapers. Scott says living here feels as if he's "died and gone to heaven".
He wakes up to the sun coming up over Little Barrier Island and has to pinch himself, he says.
The design of the house, with no two angles the same, makes a statement but the angles are not just a design quirk - they mitigate the wind that can race through when you are on the top of a hill.
1612Q Pakiri Road, Pakiri. Pictures / Simon Devitt
"The house is solid. I mean, there's four tons of steel." Scott and architect Paul Clarke, of Studio2 Architects, spent nearly a year working on the design.
The brand consultant, who lives there with his dog Skippy, says he always advises people to use an architect because they do the most amazing things with space.
One of the space saving devices is the staircase which leads up to his studio.
Called an alternate staircase, the design harks back to Dutch merchants of the 18th century who lived in thin, narrow houses, and who needed to find a way of going up without the staircase taking up half the room: "You split it up the middle and you shunt one half above the other so it's an incredibly clever way of saving space."
1612Q Pakiri Road, Pakiri. Pictures / Simon Devitt
Scott is a Scotsman who was living in Sydney but who chose New Zealand for his home. He was raised in a mining village south of Edinburgh, one of five kids in a state house.
Sharing a bedroom with two big brothers has a profound effect on your idea of space and privacy, he says.
Always artistic, he went to art school but then got work at an ad agency as a writer and ended up in Australia.
When Kiwibank was launched, he was asked to come over to work on the campaign and when living in Wellington he fell in love with the country.
Though he returned to Sydney, he vowed to move here and used to come over for weekend mini-breaks, coming across pristine Pakiri beach one time when he got lost. He found his "sensational site" after a farmer had divided off some blocks of land.
1612Q Pakiri Road, Pakiri. Pictures / Simon Devitt
His house is called The Crossing because it is on the path of an old cattle track. There are light and dark zones for living and sleeping, and a steel kitchen bench he describes as a sculpture in its own right.
In fact, the house was inspired by sculpture artist Gemma Smith. Scott, who worked in steel sculpture as a student, had seen one of her works which looked like five different sculptures as you walked around it and he wanted that for his house.
At the front is a 6m high apex, which is all glass and light and fully opens to the outdoors; "it just merges".
The landscaping is pure nature and Scott loves the birdlife, and says he and Skippy came across a seal on the beach the other day.
1612Q Pakiri Road, Pakiri. Pictures / Simon Devitt
You are connected to nature living rurally and Scott has surprised himself by selling so soon, but has another project in mind.
