Mark Norton likes playing with words, so when it comes to describing the house overlooking Mangawhai that he and his wife Barbara have enjoyed for only 18 months, he can certainly wax lyrical. The couple had been searching for years to find the perfect property, planning to reduce their workload and looking forward to active semi-retirement in their year round beach house.
"This was going back to my roots, as a teenager me and my mates had always surfed up and down this coast," says Mark. "Mangawhai is my favourite break as I'm a goofy [left] footer, and this is the best left hand break in the whole of Northland."
You can hear he is in two minds about leaving, but his planned gentle contracting work has upped pace to a fulltime role back in the city with Panuku Auckland Development. Life is too busy now to live so far out of town, so the couple are sadly selling.
They know they were extremely lucky finding this spot, one of 20 or so large blocks carved out of a farm abutting Bream Tail Farm behind a security gate and winding driveway (there's a low-key owners' association, and a $400 annual fee to maintain both). The two-storey cedar house was designed by Warkworth architectural designer Martin Harnish for an English couple who used to spend only two months every summer here visiting family. Mark says though it was built 8 years ago, in reality the house had only had a year or so of use.
He and Barbara spotted an opportunity to breathe life back into the building that had been locked up most of the year. The design was brilliant for their planned use as a couple, but flexible enough to host visiting parties of grown children and grandchildren for holidays. The design works for kids from toddlers to teens: safely fenced with a massive ground-level deck and lawns for littlies, minutes from the cafes and beach action at Mangawhai for the big ones. Mark counts himself in that latter group, as the keen surfer doesn't miss a chance to ride the waves, when he's not stand-up paddleboarding or fishing. Fortunately, there's a man-cave separate from the garage to hold all the toys, and plenty of parking if new owners have a boat to keep. Barbara's golf gear also gets a look in -- she's a keen user of the local greens, minutes away.
Image 1 of 8: 35c Taranga View Road, Mangawhai Heads
The flow of the house is ideal, with a porticoentrance to welcome guests (the three-car garage is tucked to one side) and light-filled stairwell. Upstairs, the designer organised the living spaces into attractive connected zones, with a fire-warmed living room at one end, a glass pavilion of a dining room in the middle and kitchen at the end. The Nortons didn't need to touch the kitchen, with its sliding servery window to the deck and a pantry tucked away to take the clutter. The upper floor has the master bedroom and en suite, plus a second guest bedroom and en suite, both with walls of glass to take in those views. This floor is cosy and contained when it is just two.
The building is nestled into the hillside, protected from the winds, with an enormous deck flowing out to the lawns. The sea is close enough to hear, the views breathtaking, to the Hen and Chicken Islands in one direction, Bream Tail and the sunsets in the other, and there is rolling countryside all around. Sheltered glass doors on both sides turn the dining room into an outdoor pavilion, and with a deck on either side there is always a spot away from wind.
The crowds are accommodated in the downstairs bedroom and bathroom zone, with its own entrance so people have some independence. Mark and Barbara saw this as an ideal set up for a bed and breakfast business, had they stayed on.
Their beach-style crisp white and blue decor is a perfect foil for the cedar exterior and interior wood floors. But the couple have steadily worked their way around the rest of the house decorating and styling. They've added blinds, carpeting and storage in the garage (Mark admits they are storage fanatics, with a place for everything), a heat pump, and Boston wardrobe organisers in the bedrooms and laundry. The front entrance got a tidy up, the grounds are now immaculate.
"You could be miles and miles from anywhere, just looking at the countryside, but in only a couple of minutes you're at the beach and the village, the boat ramp and estuary," says Mark. "We've loved the solitude, the stunning sunsets, access to all the walking trails. For us it was the right place at the right time."
As it will be for the next lucky owners planning their getaway from the city.
