It takes an adventurous spirit to buy sight unseen 42ha of land on a remote peninsula in the Far North — then to find there’s no road access and you have to walk to get to it.
But for Chuck Tompkins, the reality of his impulse buy could not have pleased him more.
His first thought was: "What a perfect place to hide away from the world." And he has never changed his mind.
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It was about 35 years ago that he came across the 42ha on what is now 138 Hansen Rd on the exclusive Purerua Peninsula, near Kerikeri.
Life was different then. “It was in the days when things like having a bach were in the scope of what people did,” he says.
Chuck’s land boasted 170m of private beach and 1.8km of coastline, a little shed and a boat shed, and a level of privacy he’d only ever dreamed of.
Over time he built a three-bedroom, three-bathroom main residence and an adjacent freestanding building containing a one-bedroom apartment, a two- car garage and offices.
With boathouse accommodation and a one-bedroom staff cottage, the property now offers six bedrooms and eight bathrooms over five buildings, with additional workshops and implement sheds.
Chuck’s wife is an accomplished horsewoman so there’s also a high standard Olympic-sized dressage arena, stables, covered yards, a tack room, 20ha of fenced pasture and trekking trails which have been enjoyed on six or seven horses over the years.
Chuck has taken full advantage of the opportunity to indulge his passion for water-based activities, enjoying his 20m catamaran for many years.
There are numerous options for boating here with three large-vessel moorings, three easily accessible landings and two concrete boat ramps.
And unlike the days when the Tompkins family first came here, every corner of the property can now be accessed by 3.5km of easy gradient roading.
But this mod-con hasn’t compromised the privacy that Chuck says is the best thing about the place. “Even though you can see from photographs how private it is, you don’t ingest that feeling until you’ve been here.
“There are few places in New Zealand you could have this, just 15 minutes by boat to Russell and Opua and a half-hour to Kerikeri.”
Chuck’s charming description of the wider area, which is perhaps best known for the Landing vineyard and high-end accommodation estate, is that “it’s quite posh here now.”
The Tompkins’ long association with the property, which has a rating valuation of $2.79m, is almost over, with tenders for it due to close on December 5.
Says Chuck: “We’re going to attempt to shift gears and stop the process of doing more and start to do less.”
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