Great aunt Edna Herrick's kindling is still laid in the stove of the old bach she built back in the 1940s overlooking the sea in a corner of what was then the wilds of the North Shore.
The bach is now an artist's studio and the house she went on to build is being reluctantly put up for sale.
The property remains a hidden paradise in what is now a sought-after location, with its idyllic views across the water to Hobsonville.
Peter and Kaye Herrick bought the property from the estate after Edna died, aged 89, and tell many stories about the old lady, who was a trailblazer in her day.
She was the head dispenser at Auckland Hospital but wasn't allowed to build a house larger than 850 square feet because she was a single woman -- though men could have 1000 square feet, great nephew Peter says.
She loved this place so much that when she was old and needed to move into a home she wouldn't budge and was delighted when Peter and Kaye moved to Auckland and decided to buy the house.
"When we turned up she was just over the moon, and then she died," Kaye says, "so she never actually did get to the home."
Kaye is the artist and her work of New Zealand birds, forest and beach scenes adorn the walls of the original house, to which she and Peter have extensively added.
Her artist's eye has found many an item that has been tastefully woven into the fabric of the home.
Take the round stained-glass window discovered at a junkyard that was originally from the ceiling of the demolished Bank of New Zealand building in the city.
They found other glass collected by Edna which they put in the front door, and art deco tiles they think she got from France, which are laid at the bottom of the old brick fireplace -- which Edna built herself, just as she tackled many of the other jobs inside the house.
She was that kind of a woman, the Herricks say.
Image 1 of 10: This North Shore home was created by a trailblazing woman. Photos / Ted Baghurst
"The other thing she did when she was running the dispensary and during the war, she imported the first penicillin into the country -- isn't that lovely," Kaye says. "And the other thing, when she was a very young pharmacist, she was working in a pharmacy down Queen St when the 1918 flu pandemic came back from overseas and a lot of her people died. She spanned quite a bit of history."
The upstairs interior has rough-sawn Rotorua redwood and matai floors, but the structure is rimu.
The Herricks added to the house as they could afford and now there is a downstairs with two bedrooms, a second lounge and bathroom, and a woodburner that heats the whole house.
Outside, Peter built a viewing platform by the cliff where there is a table and chairs. Decking was also added upstairs.
This is partially covered on one side for when it is hot in summer and uncovered on another to take advantage of the winter sun.
Where Kaye has a studio, Peter has an office/man cave and there are many outdoor spots to sit, plus a track to the sea and some outside sheds.
When Edna was first here, there was no harbour bridge and before subdivision for housing the area was strawberry fields.
The Herricks are in their 70s now and are moving to be near their children, but Kaye has put up a little sign in her studio (Edna's bach) that reads: "Edna B Herrick, 1942", so no one forgets great aunt Edna.
