Media power couple Dallas and Donna Gurney are quitting Auckland to run a grocery store in Northland, and have put their stunning multi-million-dollar home – a former church – on the market for sale.
Dallas Gurney hit the headlines earlier this year when he stood down as chief of Today FM just days before the talkback radio station he launched in March 2022 was sensationally taken off air and axed by its owners, MediaWorks.
Gurney, who was previously general manager of Newstalk ZB, had intended to shake-up the news and radio sector with Today FM and had hired broadcasting big guns Tova O’Brien, Duncan Garner and Rachel Smalley as hosts.
But with the painful episode now behind him, Gurney and his wife Donna, who is senior director of ad sales at Warner Bros Discovery, have decided to leave Auckland.
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The Herald revealed last month that the couple are heading to Northland, where they’ve bought the general store and café in Whananāki.
Gurney now bills himself as a “grocer-in-waiting” as the couple ready themselves to take over the store in September. The beachside town 45 minutes north of Whangarei has been home to Dallas’ ancestors since they emigrated 100 years ago and his 94-year-old grandfather still lives there.
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“We look at each other and go ‘are we a bit nuts?’,” Donna Gurney told OneRoof of the move.
The shift to Northland means the couple are selling their Auckland home – a converted church they bought in November 2020 for just over $2 million.
The renovated former Presbyterian church at 7 Clarks Lane, Hobsonville, was a chance find that Donna “wrangled” Dallas into viewing nearly three years ago.
“We weren’t actually looking, I was just browsing. I went and looked at it on my own and just about cried when I walked into it," she told OneRoof.
“It took my breath away. Then I wrangled my husband at the auction.”
The couple competed with another bidder at the October 2020 auction, sealing the deal immediately afterwards. They moved in in early 2021, pleased that the previous owner had done all the work to renovate the old church and add a modern wing. Gurney said they didn’t need to do anything to the property, except enjoy it.
“Every day I come home I feel like I’ve escaped the city. There are the most beautiful sunsets, it’s so peaceful. All the other houses on the street are quite large historic properties.”
Former radio boss Dallas Gurney and ad sales director Donna Gurney outside the Northland store they bought. Photo / Supplied
The former church was bought by the Gurneys in 2020 for just over $2m. Photo / Supplied
Donna said the height and shape of the great room – the former chapel – was a calming space, but with the benefit of good insulation and central heating. She said the previous owner added the huge new garage wing to park his collection of up to six cars, and they had plans to convert it back to a more modest two-car garage with three more bedrooms, bathroom and a second living area.
Through 2021 lockdown one of the two large bedrooms on the floor above became an office for one half of the media power couple, while the mezzanine floor above the kitchen served the other. The huge space has been pressed into service for work away days, Donna said,
“It’s quite an inspiring space. And the garden is stunning too,” she said, listing off the fruit trees in the nearly 2000sqm of productive garden. The previous owner even created a pair of Victorian-looking sheds – one for gardening and one that Donna turned into her outside office in the summer.
The church sits on a nearly 2000 sqm site on a street of heritage buildings across the walkway from Hobsonville Point. Photo / Supplied
“It’s time to let go,” she said of passing on the custodianship of the church to take on their new project.
“It’s somebody else’s turn. We’ll be really sad to say goodbye, but we’re off on our next adventure.
“We’ve been thinking about this on and off for 10 years, this time it just felt right to do it,” she said, adding that the “massive renovation” they were about to start on the store buildings was about creating a hub for the community as a year-round general store, café and fish and chip shop.
“It’s a great place to holiday, I’ve always wanted to live at the beach.”
Bayleys agent Kirsten Bishop is selling the church with Chris Bell, with a set sale date closing July 26. Records show it last sold for $2.01m in 2020 and has a CV of $2.065m.
"It's an absolute privilege to be marketing this property with it's history, expansive lawns and garden," she said.
"Our vendors have absolutely loved living here and we wish them the very best with their new venture outside of Auckland."
- 7 Clarks Lane, Hobsonville has a set sale date closing July 26
