- Dr Mary Birdsall is selling her coastal retreat to spend more time with family overseas.
- Birdsall, former Fertility Associates boss, now focuses on her charity, Anal Cancer Support Services Aotearoa.
- The property, near Matakana, features cedar pavilions and native plantings and is expected to sell above $2.25m.
One of the country’s best-known doctors is selling her coastal retreat to spend more time with her family overseas.
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In her role as chair and group medical director of fertility treatment provider Fertility Associates, Dr Mary Birdsall has helped bring an estimated 25,000 babies into the world, but she retired three years ago. The hardworking doctor is now pouring her energy into her new charity, Anal Cancer Support Services Aotearoa.
Her bout with the rare cancer (and, as it happens, her husband’s illness weeks later) coincided with Fertility Associates selling a majority stake to private equity buyers. Birdsall told OneRoof her decision to retire was “incredibly easy”.
“My career was huge and fabulous, but it’s lovely now to have a bit more space in my life,” she said.
The property is stylish and private. The listing agent told OneRoof she expects it will sell for more than its RV of $2.25m. Photo / Supplied
Dr Birdsall in 2009 when she was medical director of Fertility Associates. In recent years she has devoted time and energy to raising awareness of anal cancer. Photo / Paul Estcourt
Her charity now has global reach, offering support across the Tasman, with Birdsall sitting on expert panels around the world.
“When I had anal cancer there was nothing, no support, and I just thought ‘what would I like?’ So it ended up being bigger than Ben Hur,” she told OneRoof.
“I have a podcast, Anal cancer: All you wanted to know but were afraid to ask. I’m not the most techy person in the world, so it’s been quite a journey kind of learning how to do all that, but that’s been super fun, and lots of people around the world listen to it.”
Back in 2007, Birdsall and her husband Rob were looking for a spot away from their high-pressure, people-facing jobs. Their search led to a sheep paddock on the edge of Tawharanui Peninsula, near Matakana.
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“We love the area because my father’s family settled here when they came out to New Zealand in the 1860s. There’s a Birdsall Road, past the house where my father was born on Takatu Road,” she said.
The 2.22ha paddock, subdivided off the neighbouring farm, had a marshy bit in the middle. So while they thought about what they wanted to build, the couple dug the marsh out into a lake and contoured the land for a building platform that gave them views to the water.
A few years later, architect Andrew Grant interpreted their brief for a modest building connected to the land around it. He gave them a series of low-key cedar pavilions, joined by outside boardwalks. The main house has two double bedrooms, the master with close water views.
The couple were hands-on gardeners, planting thousands of native plants around the house. “For years I had a ute, and all it had in the back was plants and gardening paraphernalia. The old Ford Ranger was very funny in the doctors’ car park,” Birdsall said.
The bach sits on more than two hectares and makes the most of its natural setting. Photo / Supplied
She referred to Christian Bay as the family’s own private spot. “It’s just an hour away from Auckland, a beautiful sanctuary where you could be entirely private. I could be the opposite of what I was in Auckland, just get in my old clothes, and sit in my outdoor bath, and it was utterly gorgeous.
“The beauty of being so close is you can pick your times when the rest of Auckland are not there.”
But with their kids now adults, the couple plan to spend more time in Sydney with their new grandchild. “We live different lives, we no longer need the idyllic sanctuary. So another family can take it on and hopefully enjoy it as much as we have,” Birdsall said.
Bayleys agent Victoria Turner said the listing was already drawing buyers from Omaha looking for something more spacious and private.
“It’s an effortless house, so relaxed out of the hustle and bustle. You’d come here to dust off the city and chill,” she said. She could not comment on the price for the property, but said she was expecting it would be “well above” its RV of $2.25m.
“It’s hard to put a number on it because it’s truly unique,” she said.
- 851B Takatu Road, Tawharanui Peninsula, Auckland, has a set sale date of May 1
