New Zealand entertainment icon Tina Cross is selling her waterfront Auckland home.
Cross supervised the build of the luxurious four-bedroom home on 17 Lansdowne Street, in Bayswater on the North Shore , with her former husband Wayne Sullivan but has not lived there for any length of time.
But Cross’s association with the property, which overlooks Shoal Bay and the Auckland Harbour Bridge goes back to 1979, when she was just starting out her career.
“It was owned by my dearest friend Penny Maich and her husband Jack. I happened upon Penny in the early days of my career, when I walked into her store on Victoria Street called The Case is Altered.
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“It was the start of an incredible friendship, she started making all my costumes including the one for the Pacific Song Contest, which was the biggie for me,” Cross told OneRoof.
That competition launched her career, although today Cross is better known for her supergroup, The Lady Killers with Jackie Clarke and Suzanne Lynch, her star turn on the 2008 season of Dancing with the Stars and her roles in Broadway shows, most recently as Madame Morrible in last year’s production of The Wizard of Oz musical prequel, Wicked.
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Cross spoke to OneRoof as she was recuperating from hip replacement surgery, her second, saying that audiences could never tell last year what a toll the high boots she had to wear for the show was taking on her.
“Once I recover from this, and I know how well I did last time, I’ll be back doing shows,” she said.
She said that she had spent many hours in the Maichs’ old house on the site, with the original bungalow, much altered by Penny and Jack over the years.
Cross, far right, with her Lady Killers bandmates Jackie Clarke, left, and Suzanne Lynch, centre. Photo / Dean Purcell
Cross wows the crowds at a concert in the mid-2000s. Photo / Getty Images
“It was the most incredible property; I remember thinking this was amazing and I’d love to do photoshoot or video down here. I did do a couple of Women’s Weekly covers there. I danced in that living room.
“I had a long association with Penny and Jack, they were my best friends.
“I never dreamed we’d be in a position to buy it,” Cross said, adding that her friends had owned the place for over 40 years before offering it to them.
When she and Sullivan bought the property in 2004, they rented it out while they stayed in their Takapuna family home.
“We had two kids, and we were [asking ourselves] are we going to jump, are we just going to keep it and decide what to do with it down the track?” she said. By the time the couple decided to go ahead and rebuild in early 2020, they came up against Covid hold ups, so the new home wasn’t finished until September 2021.
Although she hasn’t lived there, Cross was closely involved in the design of the kitchen and living spaces. The house, which was built on the floorplate of the original bungalow, was designed to have a separate living space, with an ensuite bathroom and kitchenette on the ground floor to house Cross’s mother, but that set up now works well for Sullivan and the couple's two grown children and their partners who live there together.
As well as the chef’s kitchen – Cross's favourite spot to watch the water – there is an open plan kitchen and dining area, and – another favourite – a covered outdoor pergola.
The house is billed by the listing agents as a "once-in-a-lifetime peninsula property". Photo / Supplied
The CV for the house is $4.8m. Photo / Supplied
“We kept so much of the character of the house, including the outdoor covered terrace. Penny and Jack called it the lanai. She had an incredible kind of island style; at one point it had a Japanese vibe.
“I would describe the home now as ‘elegant beach house’. I don’t consider it sophisticated, to me it feels like a completely modern house. It’s simplistic and very modern,” she said.
The house sports a stone wall and steps down to the harbour, handy for boating friends to pick up the kids at high tide she said or launch a kayak or swim at high tide. There is a boat ramp for bigger vessels around at Bayswater Marina nearby. Watching kite-surfers or water skiers on the smooth waters of Shoal Bay is a favourite past time, as both the ground floor living, and upper floor bedrooms all have water views.
The four-car garage has room for plenty of water toys, Cross said.
“The deck and garden, they’re absolutely private, you could lounge and watch the water, you can see the Harbour Bridge. You can actually fish off the outdoor area.
“I don’t believe there’s another home like it,” Cross said.
“It’s a beautiful home, we’re all sorry to see it go but it’s just one of those things.”
New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty agents Malcolm Low and Winston Kidd who are marketing the property, for price by negotiation, could not comment on the likely price the home will sell for. It has a CV of $4.8m.
“We are fielding enquiries and would expect the sale price of well in excess of this figure,” Kidd told OneRoof.
“To my knowledge I haven't seen a property like 17 Lansdowne Street Bayswater come to market in recent years,” Low said.
“It is extremely unusual and rare to have a quality waterfront home that is 'move in' ready to enjoy sitting virtually on the inner waters of Auckland's Waitemata Harbour
“Buyers have been drawn to the location of the water, new construction and access to the CBD, the ferry is 12 minutes.”
Cross added: “Jackie Clarke, said ‘why aren’t we having a house party there?’ That’s never off the cards.
“It’s just a magical place to live.”
- 17 Lansdowne Street, Bayswater, Auckland, is for sale by way of price by negotiation
