A US-based Kiwi has listed for sale a boat-shaped bach he bought sight unseen while having a beer at the pub seven years ago.
David Simpson spends most of his time in Los Angeles, where he runs a string of service stations, but three months every year he’s back in New Zealand in the Bay of Islands.
His one-of-a-kind three-bedroom holiday home sits on a 4880sqm section just off the aptly named Anchorage Heights Place.
In a phone interview with OneRoof last week, Simpson recalled how he ended up with the property.
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He was looking for a place to store his boat and had intended to buy a section 60km north in Mangōnui but his plans changed when he spotted the listing for 19 Anchorage Heights Place.
“I was going to dump the boat on the Mangōnui section, but then I saw this place for sale.”
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The fact his father lived nearby in Paihia was a bonus. “And I like this area,” he said.
He was having a beer with his family at the Puhoi Pub, on Auckland’s northern fringes, when he dialled into the auction for 19 Anchorage Heights Place. Minutes later he was the proud owner of a boat-shaped home.
“I’d never actually seen it. I just saw the pictures on the internet, and then it came up for auction. So I’m standing in the middle of the pub garden in Puhoi, and I just ended up being the highest bidder. I walked back inside and said, ‘Oh, guess what? I just bought a house’. It was over a beer. That part I can vouch for, and so can other people.”
Simpson got his first visit a couple of days later. “I was taken aback. It’s different. It’s just got so much character in it. I love different things, and [OneRoof] wouldn’t have called me if it was just a square box.”
The house sits on a 4880sqm section and has commanding views of the water. Photo / Supplied
The interiors are light-filled and spacious. Photo / Supplied
Simpson said he had decided to sell because the property can no longer house his growing collection of boats. He has, however, bought another home nearby. “It’s still waterfront and I’m just 500 yards down the road. It enables me to have that little bit more space,” he said.
“I’m a boating nut and I have multiple boats. The house is fine for one boat, but once you get past one boat, it’s a little tight.”
Simpson currently owns three aluminium fishing boats – “small, medium and large” – and spends much of his time in New Zealand fishing and diving in the area. “The whole area is perfect for it,” he said.
Why the house was built in the shape of a ship is a little bit of a mystery. Locals can’t put a name to the architect or the home’s original owner, and the property has virtually no internet footprint. Locals all know the home, though. “If I say where I live, people say, ‘Oh that’s the Boathouse’,” Simpson said.
The property has been given a makeover. Photo / Supplied
“Whoever built it understood construction. They’ve gone to a lot of trouble. Everything is in the shape of the boat. All of the cedar is curved. It had to be steamed to get it to bend that way.”
The home is built on poles and overlooks the Doves Bay Marina and Kerikeri Inlet and is being marketed by Ray White agent Brett Hammond.
“It’s just a desirable, unique, architecturally designed property sitting in the tree tops,” said Hammond. “It looks down over the lovely Doves Bay and the marina complex.”
- 19 Anchorage Heights Place, in Kerikeri, Far North, goes to auction on June 20
