The beach retreat built by one of the founding members of New Zealand’s first women’s surf life-saving club has hit the market for sale.
Northland woman Marie Flavell-Barnes lived in her home with direct access to the estuary in Mangawhai Heads for more than 20 years and would often be found just several kilometres away at her local surf life-saving club.
She was a life member and patron of the Mangawhai Heads Voluntary Surf Lifeguard Service and in 2014 was awarded a 50-year badge for her involvement in surf life-saving in New Zealand. She died a year later aged 77.
However, her connection with surf life-saving stretched decades to when she and three female friends set up their own surf life-saving club on Milford Beach in the late 1950s.
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Daughter Sharon Flavell told OneRoof that women were not allowed to join surf clubs back then so her mother and her friends decided to set up their own club called Milford Girls.
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“She loved the beach and because she had grown up with all their family holidays at Piha she just loved getting back in the surf and she was frustrated that women weren’t allowed to be lifeguards so she thought, ‘I will do it myself then’.”
They became the country’s first women lifeguards. It was also through the sport that she met her first husband, who was part of Muriwai Surf Club, while attending a surf club carnival in Wellington.
The couple raised their six children on dairy farms near Mangawhai.
When Flavell-Barnes was looking for a house in the early 1990s, she was drawn back to the water and bought a property with impressive estuary, sand dune, ocean and island views.
She purchased the small fibrolite bach on a 2117sqm section for $179,000 in 1992 on Cheviot Street, in Mangawhai Heads, with grand plans to renovate it.
“I think she saw the potential of it – it’s quite a decent-sized section. I think she saw the potential. She knew she could [turn] it into a really good home,” Sharon said.
She transformed the property, which has an RV of $2.3 million, into a large three-bedroom, two-bathroom home with sarked timber ceilings.
Earth bricks were sourced from her sister’s farm and stained glass windows were included in the design.
“It was a real labour of love this house for her. It was a real creation,” Sharon said.
Unique features include sarked timber ceilings, earth bricks and stained glass windows that are scattered throughout the house. Photo / Supplied
The home boasts impressive water views and has direct access to the estuary. Photo / Supplied
“She was so creative – she never she thought she was, but she was.”
Upstairs is a large master bedroom with an ensuite bathroom, while downstairs are two more bedrooms, three living areas and a bathroom in a floorplan spanning 340sqm. There’s also a large garage suitable for storing all the water sports equipment.
Sharon said the home became the “meeting hub” for the family. Some of Flavell-Barnes’ children and grandchildren, who have followed in their grandma’s footsteps and are actively involved in the local surf club, have a lot of good memories made at the property.
“From her house there’s a track that goes straight down to the estuary. She had a dinghy and she would always go out in the dinghy,” Sharon said.
“Every time the kids went to granny’s they would go out and get pipis and cockles. It was such a lovely place for all the grandkids to be a part of.”
Flavell-Barnes’ second husband has been living at the property but has decided to move back to his farm so the family has decided it is now time to sell it.
Bayleys agent Dianne Christiansen said the property was tucked away so a lot of people didn’t even realise it was there. “It has a nice privacy about it.”
She said it was a spacious house with great views that would suit someone who wanted to add their flair.
“An older couple with adult kids and kids that buys it as a beach retreat or somebody might buy it as their home. It’s such a great location.”
Mangawhai still had a great community feel, she said, and a double-width walkway was under construction to connect the Heads with the village.
- 11 Cheviot Street, Mangawhai Heads, in Kaipara, is priced by negotiation
