SCHOOL ZONES:
Bayfield Primary, Ponsonby Intermediate, Western Springs, Auckland Girls’.
CONTACT:
Jan George or Aaron Haabjoern, Ray White, ph Jan 0274 784 119, or Aaron 021 469226.
It's been 58 years since Alan and Maureen Mason first walked down the driveway here on the word of Alan's real-estate agent cousin Jack. They were told there was a new, spec-built home on the water's edge that was ripe for the picking.
Alan took one look and declared it way beyond his budget, but he thought his father George, who lived in nearby St Marys Bay, might be interested. George declined but he offered his son a mortgage, and in October 1956 Alan handed over the £8000 for his first and only home as a married man.
Never once were Alan and Maureen tempted to move their children Judith, Paul and Brian anywhere else. Maureen lived here until her death three years ago at the age of 88, and Alan did too until his death three months ago at the age of 91.
For Judith, Paul and Brian, this was the only home they had known. It is also the last link in their family's near century-long connection with the wider St Marys Bay, Herne Bay and Freemans Bay area.
Poignantly, this sale marks the end of an era of sunrises, sunsets and a childhood lived at the beach down steps past the garden. Recently, the three Mason grandchildren played one last game of cricket on the lawn and feasted on Chinese food afterwards, in memory of Alan and Maureen's ritual of Chinese takeaways for Sunday dinner.
"It was idyllic. That was what it was, just idyllic," says Judith, who was 8 months old when her parents moved here.
When Judith, Paul and Brian came together for the last time at the house, they found themselves dusting off memories in a solid timber home that was virtually unchanged, structurally and decoratively.
From the original frosted front door "where company came in", says Judith, to the door handles, the lounge wall alcoves and the multi-patterned carpet, this solid timber home has been tweaked to support changing family needs. They had Maureen's mother living with them for 13 years and Alan's mother for three years during the 1970s.
When Alan retired from the family engineering business in 1979, he devoted himself to his passion for geology and palaeontology, building still more wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling timber bookcases. "We had four bedrooms, then three plus a study, then three libraries plus Mum and Dad's bedrooms," Judith laughs. Their parents' en suite with basin and shower is original. The family bathroom near the laundry has a separate shower.
Maureen's 1994 kitchen, with granite benches, takes in the same unobstructed sea views as the dining area and the adjacent lounge.
Alan and Maureen were meticulous homeowners but they made sure to make the most of life by the beach. Alan swam in the mornings; Maureen only had to stand in the lounge to watch her children diving off the platform constructed by the late Robert Laidlaw, the founder of Farmers, who owned pre-subdivided land holdings along here.
Image 1 of 8: Herald Homes
75A Argyle Street, Herne Bay.
26 August 2014 NZ Herald photo by Ted Baghurst.
The Mason children played rugby and cricket, they swam, they fished and they swung off the pohutukawa ropes and dropped into the sea. Judith sometimes took her school books down to the beach to study. At night she'd sit on the deck in the moonlight and just enjoy it for what it was.
They have enviable memories to sustain them, which Alan was able to draw on in his final years as his eyesight began to fail. "He felt the sun and he knew the view," Judith says. "He used to say, 'I can imagine the view'."
