Tui dip into flax flowers on the boundary of the Hibiscus Hospice. Beyond, pairs of golfers zigzag down the hillside between pohutukawa and other mature trees.
Bench seats in the hospice's remembrance garden look out over the large expanse of green, as do most of the rooms of those inside - rooms in which the occupants will spend their final days.
Soon their picturesque outlook could become the site of little boxes on the hillside. There are plans to turn the 18-hole, 45ha course into a 500-house development.
"If it goes ahead we will lose the privacy and peaceful enjoyment our patients get here," says hospice chief executive Winsome Stretch as she looks out over the Peninsula Golf Course.
In 2009, golf club members voted to sell their land to PLDL, in exchange for cash and a new custom-built course at Wainui, in Silverdale. The agreement is conditional on a private plan change to rezone the golf course site from "future urban" to "residential medium intensity".
PLDL applied for the change last year and, on December 15, the Auckland Council's regional development and operations committee agreed to accept it for notification, something Ms Stretch says gives the community an opportunity to fight the change fiercely.
"There are a lot of people in the community opposed to it. I think we have to get organised and say so with a loud voice.
"A housing development is not acceptable to us, based on the privacy and peace needed by the people we look after. These are people who are dying and to have a big construction site [nearby] is just not on."
The hospice, which opened in 2008, has six in-patient rooms and offers day groups for outpatients as well as respite care and pain management.
Ms Stretch is concerned that building a large subdivision will cause dust and noise pollution and destroy the hospice's peaceful environment. She's also worried the site's poor drainage and potential traffic issues have not been considered.
"There is already major congestion on Whangaparaoa Rd and another 500 houses will hugely increase the number of cars on the road."
She says plans to sell the course were not disclosed when the hospice bought the land from the golf club in 2004.
"And that's disappointing. It would have been a factor in our decision to buy if we had known."
But a lawyer on the board of the Peninsula Golf Club Board has written to The Aucklander saying he was involved in the sale of land to the hospice in 2004.
"When we accepted the offer from Hospice we had not been approached to sell the land to any developers," Patrick Kennelly said. He said Ms Stretch's allegations do "not have any basis in fact at all" and are defamatory of the golf club.
He said aside from any possible implication that the golf club had acted underhandedly he was disappointed as a supporter of the hospice.
"What is probably even more disappointing is the contributions the Club has made to Hospice over the years as well as the personal support from a number of its members," said Mr Kennelly. "My own firm has a donation box used to collect funds for Hospice."
Housing not needed
Ms Stretch believes, with several thousand new houses planned at the nearby Millwater development, the extra housing is not required.
"The ideal solution would be for the council to buy the land and turn the whole thing into a reserve."
Last year, the Hibiscus Bays Local Board asked the council's governing body to reject the plan change and investigate buying the site or part of it, for a reserve.
Chairwoman Julia Parfitt says the site seems unsuitable for a development of the size proposed.
"We, as a board, have a resolution on the books supporting the council looking at buying it.
"We questioned whether it should actually be processed, as the District Plan has not been operative for the proper time."
Hibiscus and Bays Local Board member John Kirikiri is surprised the council decided to notify the plan change after the board's strong opposition. "I'm dumbfounded that our view was not taken into consideration.
"There's no 'local' in local board because we have no teeth."
He says he is contacted almost daily by people in the community who are concerned about the proposal.
"And 99.9 per cent don't want it there but, because we as a board don't have any regulatory powers or responsibilities, we can only advocate for the community."
He says there is a lot of development occurring in the area, and without the Penlink - a proposed second access road to Whangaparaoa Peninsula - it will place too much stress on the infrastructure.
Frank Butler, who lives on the boundary of the golf course in the Hibiscus Coast Village, says he is just waiting for the notification to appear so he can launch a strong protest.
"I can get 200 objectors just by calling a meeting. The fact is, people who neighbour the golf course paid quite a lot for their houses. This is going to put pressure on roads and schools and the green belt will be gone."
Auckland Council did not respond to requests for information about when the public would be able to have their say on the proposal.
What do you think? Have your say below.
1982 crash victim's sister: “It’s just like, ‘you bastard, you brought it all up again’.