- A waterfront home linked to the Parker-Hulme murder case sold for $590,000 to a North Canterbury family.
- The property, rarely available, attracted interest from flippers and families seeking a legacy getaway.
- The home hosted Sir Peter Jackson and stars during the filming of Heavenly Creatures in 1994.
A rundown waterfront home that hosted Hollywood A-listers because of its links to the notorious Parker-Hulme murder case has been snapped up by a cash buyer in just 10 days.
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The original bach on Puari Road, in Port Levy, Banks Peninsula, sold for $590,000 after the owner accepted a cash unconditional offer that she felt was too good to refuse.
The owner and her late husband purchased the one-bedroom property fully furnished in 1984 and have now sold it 40 years on with many of those original items still in it.
Raine & Horne salesperson Kristian Danholt, pictured with his dog Cooper, slapped on the sold sticker within two weeks of the Port Levy bach hitting the market. Photo / Supplied
Raine & Horne agent Kristian Danholt, who also holidays in the area, said the property attracted interest from all over the region, noting that waterfront homes in Port Levy rarely came up for sale.
The new owners are a North Canterbury family who had been looking for a legacy property to share with friends and family.
They made a cash unconditional offer two Sundays before Christmas, and three days later it had sold.
The elderly owner was “stoked” with the result, he said, and was ready to move on from it. “She gave me a fist pump at the residential home.”
The trip out to the bach had become more difficult after her husband died earlier last year and so she made the tough decision to sell.
The new family takes ownership later this month and plans to slowly do it up. “They said if we can we are going to keep it as it is and we will just do it up and we are going to hit the gardens first,” Danholt said.
They were also replacing the dated furniture with their own.
Heavenly Creatures stars Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey in a scene from the film. The stars visited the Port Levy bach used by one of the girls involved in the 1954 Parker-Hulme murder case. Photo / Supplied
The owner recalled Winslet and Lynskey jumped on the beds when they visited the bach during the filming. Photo / Supplied
While about a third of those interested were flippers looking for a property within an hour and a half from Christchurch they could do up and make a quick buck on, Danholt said the remaining buyers were people looking for a family getaway. Some potential buyers already owned baches in Church Bay and Diamond Harbour, but were looking for somewhere quieter.
The bach had a brush with stardom when it hosted Sir Peter Jackson and his stars while he was making his Oscar-nominated film Heavenly Creatures in 1994.
Heavenly Creatures stars Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey in a scene from the film. The stars visited the Port Levy bach used by one of the girls involved in the 1954 Parker-Hulme murder case. Photo / Supplied
The movie, a dramatisation of the notorious 1954 New Zealand murder involving schoolgirls Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme who were played by a young Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey, was shot in and around the area.
The owner told OneRoof at the time of listing the property that Port Levy had been buzzing with film crews for several months.
Sir Peter knocked on her door one morning and asked if he could bring and two other cast members to the property, which had been used by the real-life Hulme family.
“Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey came and had a look and they said, ‘Oh, did they [Juliet and Pauline] sleep in these beds?’,” she told OneRoof.
“They were psyched up for the movie and they were bouncing up and down on the beds.”
She laughingly added: “My late husband liked to say that Kate Winslet was in his bed. That was his favourite thing to say.”
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