"He told us about things like: 'We would all sit around in this lounge and my grandma would read and test her books out on us, my step-grandfather would be asleep through the whole thing and when he was asked he would always get it right [knowing who the murderer in each novel was]'.
"There was a story he told which was really simple but really grabbed my attention - as you walked into the dining room there was a brass snake that Sir Max [Christie's second husband] had brought back from one of his trips, a doorstop which had a very sharp tongue and every time she went past she would snag her tights or injure herself on it and she got so sick of this she ended up putting a champagne cork on it and it is still there."
The 35-year-old was pleased to learn Christie lived a humble life.
"It's a lovely, grand house but it's not ostentatious, that's what she liked about it.
"It could still be a family home. It sits right in over an estuary which looks like a lake, big grounds with lots of trees and croquet on the lawn.
"Hats and umbrellas still hung on the umbrella stand in the doorway and pictures of her family and ancestors adorned the hall- way.
"In the lounge there was piano where she would sit and sing and play but wouldn't let anybody hear her. The seats where she would read out her chapters and get people to guess who the murderer was were grouped around the fireplace," she said.
Ms Killick said Christie never wrote at the holiday home but used the space to read her work to herself and family.
The Tauranga South woman had adored the writer since she was a teenager and was introduced to the books by her mother and grandmother who were also fans of the novelist.
"Up until fifth form [Year 11] I was quite severely bullied and I found her books helped me escape into a completely different realm. They had such an amazing atmosphere about them. They sort of gave me a confidence, a shelter or a refuge.
"By seventh form those who had bullied me voted me to be head girl so she was just a constant through those changes.
"I've read her books again and again and she has sort of been a friend.
"I think I have read all but two of her stories.
"To hear about her from her family and to walk where she walked, it was an absolute dream."
Ten facts about Agatha Christie:
1. In her early years Agatha Christie didn't go to school but was educated at home by her mother and a succession of governesses
2. She wrote her first book as the result of a challenge from her sister Madge.
3. In her late teens she studied to be a classical musician but was too nervous to perform.
4. She is the only crime writer to have created two equally famous and much loved characters - Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.
5. She is the only female dramatist ever to have had three plays running simultaneously in London's West End.
6. Endless Night is narrated by a young working-class male - and she wrote it when she was 76.
7. In 1922 she travelled around the world.
8. Her first book waited five years before publication having been rejected by six publishers.
9. She wrote six bitter sweet novels under the name Mary Westmacott.
10. She wrote an entire book over one weekend: Absent in the Spring by Mary Westmacott.
