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With a string of Hollywood hits to his name and a home in LA's trendy Venice Beach, Martin Henderson appears to have everything a young actor could desire.
But what he really wants is a slice of Godzone to come back to - and he's on the hunt for the perfect piece of real estate to make his own.
The 34-year-old took time out from filming World War II drama Home by Christmas in Wellington to check out beach properties in the upper North Island.
Henderson, who shot to fame as Stuart Neilson in Shortland Street, told the Herald on Sunday he had looked in the Coromandel and areas nearer his hometown of Auckland.
"I have wanted to get a place back here for the last few years and would love to have a little home here. I haven't yet found the right place but will continue to look and take my time."
Henderson's permanent base remains a modest flat in Venice Beach, where performers, fortune-tellers and stallholders line the carnival-like Ocean Front Walk, and wannabe actors parade in the Californian sun.
"There are many aspects of living in the United States that I thoroughly enjoy but, as they say, 'there's no place like home' and I think that is especially true of New Zealand," said Henderson.
"I have an intense love of this land, and that connection to the countryside and coastal beauty stays with me no matter where I go."
Henderson has no immediate plans to return permanently but wants to spend more time here after almost 10 years in Los Angeles.
He remembers how one day his agent took him to a swanky Beverly Hills restaurant and the next he was opening 99c cans of tuna.
That changed after he starred alongside Naomi Watts in hit 2002 horror The Ring.
Two years later, he appeared with Ice Cube in motorcycle action flick Torque and played Will Darcy in Bride and Prejudice, a comedy loosely based on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
With sailing off Venice Beach among Henderson's pastimes, Coromandel real estate agent Merv Gardiner said he would find Cooks Beach "magical".
Gardiner, of Richardsons Real Estate, said Henderson would enjoy easy sailing conditions around the Mercury Islands and the permanent population of only 400 gave the settlement a community feel. "It's idyllic."
Further up the peninsula, Unlimited Potential Real Estate's Neil Bailey touted Hot Water Beach as the perfect place for Henderson.
Bailey suggested a beachfront four-bedroom, architecturally designed house.
"There's a great community feel. It's a holiday destination but it's still private," he said.
