- Mark Leishman and Jo Raymond sold their Matakana lifestyle block to a family last month.
- The property, bought for $1.835m in 2020, has an RV of just under $2m.
- The sale follows the deaths of their Labradors, marking the end of an era for Leishman.
The human star of 1990s TV hit Tux Wonder Dogs has finally found a buyer for his lifestyle block in Matakana.
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Mark Leishman and his wife and Tux producer Jo Raymond put their four-bedroom retreat on Rosemount Road on the market last year after deciding to shift south.
Bayleys listing agent Kellie Bissett confirmed the deal took place at the end of last month.
“It’s been bittersweet for Mark and Jo, having relished their time in Matakana. However, the move south presents fresh opportunities,” she told OneRoof.
The couple bought the four-bedroom lifestyle block on Rosemount Road, in Matakana, just after Covid struck. Photo / Supplied
Buddy and Mickey at Mark and Jo’s Matakana spread. Photo / Supplied
The agent said the property was snapped up by a family who were “super-excited to create their own memories in the area”. She declined to reveal what they had paid. The RV for the 1.1-hectare block is just under $2 million.
OneRoof also reached out to Leishman and Raymond, but they declined to comment on the sale.
The couple bought the property in 2020, just after Covid broke out, for $1.835m.
They told OneRoof in June last year that the sale was tinged with sadness as it followed the deaths of their beloved Labradors, Mickey and Buddy, in 2023.
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Leishman, whose Saturday evening show was once more popular than Oprah and Mr Bean, said: “It’s the end of quite an era really. I’ve had dogs for 42 years. There was never a day where we didn’t have a dog in the house.”
The couple had welcomed Mickey and Buddy into their lives after losing Tux’s real star, Dexter, in 2000.
Leishman told OneRoof that Mickey and Buddy loved wandering around the lifestyle block and surrounding countryside in their final years. “They live in the park permanently now,” he said.
Leishman and Raymond said they had shifted to Matakana, on Auckland’s northern fringes, because they were looking for something new in their lives.
The family’s favourite space is the huge party room, created to be a year-round space. Photo / Supplied
The huge lawn hosted large family gatherings and is surrounded by bush. Photo / Supplied
“We decided that we wanted to change and four years ago, we discovered this particular property which is very special,” Leishman said. “We weren’t regular Matakana visitors back when we first got here. It was the windy roads and wasn’t that flash.”
Raymond said the family knew the area because when their children were small, the family spent a lot of time at Kawau Island, as Leishman was a bit of a boatie. She said the property was opposite the Ascension Wine Estate and surrounded by a “beautiful forest”.
“It reminds me of Europe,” she told OneRoof. “And it is a bit different as most people come up here to look at the beaches.”
Nearly a third of the property is in bush, with tracks down to a stream and a 180-year-old kauri tree, which the couple call their “true north”.
The fourth bedroom, which is in a separate building beside the house, helped entice grown kids home for extended stays. Photo / Supplied
The kitchen was installed by the previous owners. Photo / Supplied
“Living beside a forest grows on you and nothing else sort of matters,” Raymond said. “You do feel you are just a caretaker, and you want to share it.”
Leishman and Raymond said the four-bedroom house had been a great family home. The most popular space during the family’s four years has been the “party room”, which Leishman and Raymond created from the covered deck area built by the previous owners. The couple added windows around the fireplace hearth and installed weather-proof pull-down sides, the perfect space for entertaining.
That space and the separate bedroom away from the main house were probably why the kids, who are now scattered around the world, kept returning for extended periods.
Leishman said: “They loved that about this property when we moved. They are musicians and love a good party. They did say, ‘Man, this would be the best place in the world for parties and fun’, and that was the understatement of the year because it really did turn out to be that.”
Raymond added: “It’s not an Omaha house, you know. It feels like a family home. It’s cosy, welcoming and easy to keep. It’ll be super-hard to leave for all those reasons.”
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