Waiheke Island has no shortage of colourful characters with interesting pasts. The same could be said about a charming 4ha property on the tip of Te Whau at Rocky Bay being sold by New York-based Peter Rothschild and his sister Katherine. Their parents, Maurine and Bob Rothschild - despite the name, not scions of the wealthy Baron Rothschild banker clan - bought the property in 1963 from one of the island's oldest families, the O'Briens.
It had been a Maori settlement before Belgian settlers Adele and Charles de Witte bought it in 1845. Charles was the Belgian consul to New Zealand, and had grand plans to bring 200,000 Belgians to Waiheke in the wake of the country's potato famine. With his son-in-law Laughlin O'Brien, he owned more than 1000ha between Te Whau Point and Woodside Bay. The bay is a mixture today of farmland and bush, but the cottage, thought to have been built in the 1850s, is redolent of earlier times.
Maurine and Bob had been touring the South Pacific when they made the trip to Waiheke. Peter says: "It was during the height of the Cold War. The Cuban Missile Crisis and nuclear testing were consuming the world's attention. My parents thought of finding a safe haven from what might develop into World War III. At the time, nuclear war may have seemed 'escapable' in the Southern Hemisphere."
Peter is not surprised his mother took a shine to the island. "My father was active in politics, my mother was devoted to the idea of preserving history.
I don't know how they got to the island - we have stories of their being in Auckland, how they were enamoured of the place, but I don't know how they decided on that particular real estate," he says. "The idea of them developing the property, that was complete malarkey. They didn't have any idea of doing anything with it, just to let it bubble along. I only went four times, not that often."
In fact Peter's first visit to the island, over Christmas 1973, was recorded in Maurine's rather glamorous Letter from New York in the fashionable women's magazine Eve, (pictured left). She notes fending off questions about Nixon and the oil crisis, before waxing lyrical about her flying day trip to the property.
"To have so much that is so beautiful. The wind, the sun, the red wine and all four of us lying in the dry grass ... full of lunch and euphoria ... The people we met everywhere in New Zealand know what a beautiful, unspoiled country they have and they have the good sense to appreciate it."
Peter wryly admits the family was not cut out for farming. From a distance, they struggled with establishing farm managers, dealing with noxious weeds, droughts, freezer strikes, livestock losses. At one point Maurine flew in from New York to protest the construction of a road along the Rocky Bay beach front. The family consider themselves guardians of the land, treasuring the landscape, native bush and historic sites - what Peter, a landscape architect and planner himself, calls "responsible land tenure".
"My sister Katherine and I have devoted our professional lives to environmental conservation ... we have always viewed our responsible stewardship as an extension of these values. However, we have to accept the inevitable: we were not very good at sheep farming."
Peter is acutely aware that, these days in Waiheke grand developments are springing up along the coast, but points out that the relationship of the old house to the landscape is what makes the property so special. His mother carefully restored the house in the 1970s; even the outbuildings have colonial charm that modern edifices lack.
Image 1 of 11: FOR HERALD HOMES
15 Rothschild Tce, Waiheke Island. 15 April 2014 New Zealand Herald Photograph by Michelle Hyslop
NZH 19Apr14 - PHOTOS/MICHELLE HYSLOP
After a few false starts, the family eventually secured leasees who have taken great care of the property for nearly 25 years - the cottage is beautifully presented, the farm looks smart, the family have invested in planting and water conservation. Now, with the lease is about to expire, the family has decided it is time to sell.
Maurine died in 2004 and, apart from a visit by one of her grandchildren, the rest of the family have not been back to the island.
"It's not exactly on the way to anywhere," says Peter. "A lot of locals feel that this is special, and historic. Which is just the spirit in which we've kept the land for the last 50 years. We have made sure every maintenance and improvement respected its valued, unique qualities. It seems increasingly unlikely we will ever be able to occupy our New Zealand paradise. It is our earnest hope that the next owners will see the property in its current state as an important legacy to be maintained for generations to come."
