A DOC-style bush hut, complete with a long drop, sold in Auckland last month for $1.28 million, OneRoof can reveal.
The tiny hut on Upper Waiwera Road, Puhoi, had been smartly upgraded and sat on a 116.89-hectare site of mostly bush, with three streams, yet was only 15 minutes from Puhoi and the new Ara Tūhono - Pūhoi to Warkworth motorway and 45 minutes from the city.
The property was initially listed in June with a tender, before being marketed with an asking price of $1.95m. It has a 2021 CV of $880,00 but the agents marketing the property, Barfoot & Thompson’s Tracy Smytheman and Kathy Walker, earlier told OneRoof the CV did not reflect the property’s true value “and specialness of this beautiful site”.
Walker said that while details of the buyer were confidential, they were very generous.
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“We had an outstanding result, over 100 enquiries. I’ve been in the industry 13 years and never seen anything like it,” she said.
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“It was important to our vendors that people would preserve what was there. The new owner is very generous and kind-hearted and invited the family to come back any time they want.
“A lot of the interest was from people who were environmentally conscious, and that’s who ended up buying it. But we had ma and pa wanting to create their forever home, or a piece of paradise for multi-generations, investors calling from off-shore.
“It was such a beautiful result,” Walker said.
Smytheman earlier told OneRoof the owners bought the property in 1990 to give their children a taste of the Kiwi wilderness.
The family’s holidays were spent camping around the hut, as well as hunting and fishing in the surrounding bush, she said. “They would basically come in, have some retreat time away, and enjoy. They had family adventures.”
The 116ha property comprises native bush, and is home to kiwi during the mating season. Photo / Supplied
The hut is simple but comfortable. Photo / Supplied
The property, known as Komokoriki, boasts three freshwater streams, which are home to kōura (freshwater crayfish), tuna (eel) and kōkopu, a member of the whitebait family, and apart from the hut and gravel roads there’s little sign of human presence.
The hut itself contains a classic pot-belly stove and traditional bunk beds, and has been tastefully modernised with macrocarpa lining, a traditional red exterior, and solar panels for off-grid power.
The hut has never been let commercially, said Smytheman. “They had friends who came to hunt at the property.”
“We would imagine someone would love to build either their own retreat there, or perhaps some sort of a tourism-style retreat. It would be an amazing place for a bach or a family home. It’s a unique piece of real estate,” Smytheman earlier said.
The property’s flora and fauna include established kauri and pūriri trees, tūī, pīwakawaka (fantail) and kererū.
One of the three freshwater streams that converge on the property. Photo / Supplied
The vendor also told OneRoof that kiwi have made an appearance on the property.
“Just as it is getting almost too dark we think perhaps they are not there, we are getting cold and almost ready to call it a night, then we hear the distinctive kiwi call. We have never been disappointed.”
The vendor said the family fell in love with the block on their first visit in 1990.
“We could not believe just how fortunate we were to have become the custodians of such a beautiful corner of New Zealand,” she said.
“When we finally stopped pinching ourselves and laughing in joy, we started exploring.”
Another charming wilderness campsite, in the South Island, is yet to find a buyer.
The Danseys Pass Holiday Park at 276 Danseys Pass Road, on the banks of the Maerewhenua River, in Waitaki, about an hour out of Oamaru, is in area that still attracts gold hunters.
Danseys Pass Park Holiday is looking for buyers with budgets of $800,000 plus GST. Photo / Supplied
The holiday park has eight cabins, a chalet, cottage and manager’s house as well as camper facilities on 1.35ha in Waitaki. Photo / Supplied.
The camp is set over 1.35ha of land, and includes eight cabins, an A-frame chalet, riverfront cottage, kitchen, ablution blocks, laundry, dining hall, and both powered and unpowered camping sites, with mature trees for shade, a kids’ playground and the river for swimming.
Also included in the sale is a three-bedroom home and an attached office for the manager.
One Agency agent Kitty Culp, who is marketing the property, said there had been “tons of interest” from buyers, including expat Kiwis and a consortium of campers who are looking at buying the place together, but no cash offer yet.
The property has a deadline sale closing today. Culp earlier indicated that interested parties needed to budget around $800,000 plus GST for the property.
“Everybody wants to see it stay as a holiday camp. If it doesn’t sell at tender, then we’ll price it,” Culp said.
“We want people to have a cash offer, but if not, we’ll run the season.”
The listing notes the current vendors are “happy to stay on and run the camp while you sort your move here. Walk straight into the new bookings and busy season.”
The retro holiday park offers the classic 1950s kiwi family camping experience, “where long summer days were spent exploring, swimming, fishing and gold panning and nights were spent around the camp fires telling yarns under the New Zealand night sky”, Culp said.
“It’s one of those camps that families have gone to for generations.”
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