SCHOOL ZONES:
Waimauku School, Massey High School, Kaipara College.
CONTACT:
Simon Spiller, Bayleys, 021 968 068.
AUCTION:
May 6 (unless sold prior).
Having scrabbled up a scrubby section's incline, Meena Sadera was gobsmacked by a Muriwai cliff-top view saying, "Wow; this is it".
"The view of the sea, the surf, the rocks and the gannets was amazing."
About seven years ago, she and husband Andy Begg happened to be driving past this address when it was an undeveloped section for sale. The Aucklanders had already concluded distance made impractical the earlier thoughts they'd had of one day retiring to the Coromandel.
They decided to build an architecturally designed home here to holiday in and eventually retire to, with Andy planning to swim and surf for many years to come.
The resulting four-bedroom home 100m above the waves of Maori Bay blends luxury with low maintenance, energy efficient living. Andy, who supervises research in AUT's School of Education, says they gave Mitchell & Stout Architects a lengthy brief explaining the way they wanted to live.
Obviously they wanted to maximise the wide dramatic view. They were after a casual ambience delivered with a certain amount of class, year-round comfort, privacy and security. They also wanted a level of self-sufficiency with solar panels helping heat water including that of their swimming pool, electricity producing photo-voltaic cells and a productive garden but no lawn.
They know locals who commute into Auckland City -- the trip is about 40 minutes off-peak.
Their double garage alongside off-street parking has ample space for beach toys, adjoins additional storage and helps conceal their big water tank.
A gated enclosed walkway with intercom provides shelter and privacy on arrival. The angular two-level home completed around Christmas 2013 favours low-maintenance tilt-slab concrete and lots of glass with underfloor heating throughout.
Meena says the open-plan kitchen-dining-living room with a fireplace and a study at its end works wonderfully as a sociable space full of people. Most rooms open to outside, accessing areas such as two front decks with vistas and two sheltered courtyards.
Image 1 of 4: Enjoy spectacular sunsets and superb views from the comfort of this architecturally designed home
Andy says. "I like being out on the deck in the late afternoon sun with a glass of beer in my hand. The sunsets are stunning; even in the middle of winter you see amazing colours."
Meena adds, "We love to look out at the sea and the birds and at the seals on Oaia Island."
Andy says, "And you see everything from surfboards, surf skis and kayaks to paragliders and land yachts."
A bedroom wing containing two bedrooms helps define two sheltered courtyards. The one flowing off their sunny open-plan living offers outdoor dining, the solar heated pool and raised garden beds. The property's crop includes herbs, vegetables and a variety of citrus and other fruit trees. Meena says it's lovely to just pop outdoors to pick something for a meal she's preparing in the granite-bench kitchen.
This floor also contains the main bathroom with sauna, a laundry and extra storage.
Downstairs, the master bedroom has a striking outlook and opens to a deck with spa pool. It's accompanied by a bathroom and another bedroom, which can alternately be used as its dressing room. Glossy turquoise tiles on some walls of the downstairs bathroom illustrate how colour accents add life around the home.
Andy and Meena say they put their hearts and souls into the property but they're now on a different life path from the one which had them retiring to Muriwai. Andy has had a shoulder injury which prevents him swimming or surfing. And they're delighted two of Meena's grown children have now relocated from England to Auckland's North Shore so the couple want to be close to them and grandchildren.
