Supersized seaside dream in Whitianga

Photo / NZ Herald

145 CENTENNIAL DR WHITIANGA

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4

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SIZE: Land 1521sq m, house 384sq m.

PRICE INDICATION: CV $1.065 million.

INSPECT: By appointment.

ON THE WEB: www.ljhooker.co.nz/ 4GZGXU

SCHOOL ZONES: Mercury Bay Area School.

CONTACT: Simon Dykzeul, LJ Hooker Whitianga, ph 021 688 100 or (07) 866 4050.

FEATURES: Eight-year-old home by award-winning builder Rod Percival with breathtaking views over Whitianga's Buffalo Beach and Simpson's Beach. Dramatic entrance hall, entertainer's kitchen, formal dining, sitting room and conservatory with panoramic views

It's not often that the retirement wave heads east across the Tasman Sea from Australia to New Zealand, but that's the route English couple Alan and Jocelyn Arnold took when they finished a 20-year stint in Sydney at the beginning of 2001. They'd decided there was such a thing as too much heat, and so had been looking around towns in New Zealand for somewhere they'd like to settle.

As luck would have it, they'd been staying with friends in Coromandel and then headed over the hills to Whitianga.

"The place we were staying belonged to a guy who was a real estate agent, so he showed us everything that might have suited. When he took us up to Centennial Drive where there were two sections side by side high up on the hill, we knew we could put them together.

"The views were magnificent - farmland on one side, an extinct volcano, Mercury Bay, the Coromandels - it was 200 degrees of view that couldn't be built out. "

Their next lucky find was local builder Rod Percival, who has won multiple golds at the Registered Master Builders Home of the Year awards. Rod's architectural designer worked with the couple to tweak their initial layout.

Naturally, with such views, the Arnolds were determined that nearly every room get a vista of farm, sea or hills. They specified a classical, symmetrical look with deep pitched roofs and octagonal bays at each end of the boomerang-shaped house.

The heart of the home is the entry hall, a grand space that leads visitors from the stained-glass front door to a wide series of glass doors and windows opening to a covered balcony on the sea side. The couple specified raked ceilings peaking at 4m to increase the drama (elsewhere ceilings are a higher-than-normal 2.7m high).

Jocelyn is a great cook, so the kitchen is specified to a top level with granite counters, heart-rimu cabinets and top-end appliances. Oh, and more of those views. The couple have entertained groups of up to 35, as guests can flow from kitchen to hall and outside, or into the capacious formal dining room and living room.

At the northern corner of the living room, the octagonal sunroom soaks in the best sea views and sun. At the opposite corner of the house - which gets the morning sun and peaceful rural views - is the master bedroom. With its en suite and private deck, it is a peaceful retreat.

The couple had originally planned the house to run a B&B business, so the remaining two double bedrooms and single room (currently an office) have luxuriously appointed en suites and a sense of privacy.

The slope of the land also allowed a fifth self-contained bedroom to be built on the lower ground floor. With its own entrance, bathroom and kitchenette, it has been frequently used by friends and family visiting from Britain.

Alan's engineering background and Rod's team's attention to detail mean that the 8-year-old exterior Monotek cladding system and concrete block base, CoronaShake roof tiles and aluminium joinery have happily stood the test of seaside wind and salt.

The couple have also delighted in building an enviable garden. Jocelyn has planted a multitiude of roses while other garden rooms are home to Australian natives, conifers, rhodos, azaleas and fruit trees.

Alan reckons living here has been a permanent holiday. The beach is a short walk down the hill, town a little further. But Alan had a bout of ill health a year or so back, so the couple have reluctantly accepted that it's time to downsize.