“We started taking out trees and there was the bay, and all our expectations about the location came to fruition.”
The term ‘views forever’ has a twofold meaning when applied to Trevor and Carrie Brown’s property on Waiheke Island.
It firstly refers to the fact that the house at 35 Waikare Rd, Oneroa, which is being sold by auction on February 29 by Ray White's Matthew Smith, has glorious views over the bay, and secondly, those views will be there forever, because it can’t be built out.
But that wasn’t the case when the couple first bought the ‘typical Waiheke bach’ in which squatters had been lodging.
Start your property search
At first they couldn’t even see the view, although they could hear the waves on Oneroa Beach below.
“We started taking out trees and there was the bay, and all our expectations about the location came to fruition,” Trevor says.
They decided to put two rentable holiday apartments downstairs, and a home for themselves on the upper level.
“I had retired by this point but I never worked harder in my life, “Trevor says.
The first stage of the renovation involved taking out a lot of walls to make the upper-level living area bigger. It’s now wall-to-wall windows and contains the L-shaped kitchen, dining and sitting room, and two big bedrooms, all decorated in a neutral theme.
On the lower level there are two self-contained holiday apartments, along with Trevor and Carrie’s office accessed via a staircase from the upper level living room.
There are many different views from the house — expansive water vistas of Oneroa Bay across to Great Barrier Island, views to both ends of Oneroa Beach including Little Oneroa, and vignettes of water and sailing boats framed by trees.
Clever planting on the 714sq m section has given the house privacy. Trevor attributes the landscaping to Carrie who, he says, jokingly, ‘employs the teapot technique of supervising with hands on hips’.
The result is a terraced garden with three levels of living space. The upper level has a deck across the entire front, the apartments have their own bricked patio, and there is a paved path leading down to a lower deck designed for entertaining. Below this is the reserve that runs down to the beach. There’s also easy access to Oneroa village. But, as Trevor says, the house is separate from the village because it is tucked down below it.
Another advantage is the protection it has from the prevailing south-westerly wind.
With the auction scheduled for the end of February, Trevor and Carrie have talked about other options for the property.
It would easily convert to a four-bedroom family home, or two large luxury apartments (subject to council approval).
The couple plan to move to a lock-up-and-leave and go travelling to visit family around the world.
