The old Kaitaia Police Station sits on a near-2ha plot at 144 Kimberley Road, in Houhora, Far North.
The old Kaitaia Police Station sits on a near-2ha plot at 144 Kimberley Road, in Houhora, Far North.
By Catherine Masters - OneRoof
If the walls could talk, there would be interesting stories to tell from the old Kaitaia Police Station, now for sale about 40km north of its original site.
The station was relocated from Kaitaia in the 1990s, ending up in the small harbour community of Houhora, where it is on the market for $620,000.
While there are still traces of the station left – such as the original police sign on the outside – the weatherboard building is being sold as a three-bedroom, two-bathroom residence.
The property was converted into a three-bedroom home and is for sale for $620,000.
Listing agent Tracey Monaghan, from Ray White Far North Circle, said the property was owned by a surfer who had moved overseas and had decided to sell.
While interest had been a bit slow over the Christmas period, there had been inquiries and people had ventured north to have a look.
She thought the fact the building was a former police station was part of the attraction for some but where the building was once a busy hub for police staff, it is now located on 1.87 hectares of bush about 10 minutes from the harbour.
While she was unsure of when the building was built, OneRoof records show it to be around 1940.
There are “beautiful” timber floors and still echoes of the police station, she said.
“It’s got some funny little cupboards in it and it’s got desks and things in it that have come from when it was set up as an office, as a station. There’s one little storage cupboard that someone said, ‘I bet they put prisoners in this room.’
“It doesn’t feel eerie or anything when you go in. It’s been tenanted for the last three years so the tenants were obviously happy to live in it, so it doesn’t feel like a police station.”
Sean Stratton, Ray White Kaitaia managing director, sold the station to the current owner, who had bought it from the man who had relocated it to Kaitaia.
“From what I understand, the guy that headed up there was an older guy and he did a lot of the conversion work himself, a lot of the joinery and that sort of thing, but it was a reasonably well-maintained building,” Stratton told OneRoof.
“It wasn’t like it was falling apart or anything like that but it was a police station so he put a kitchen in it, bathrooms. Some of the original fixed desks are still in it, that kind of thing.”
A rundown house at 1248A Oruru Road, Peria, is up for grabs for $330,000.
Stratton said people were not locked up in this building as the cells were in a separate block.
“This was the office space. The good thing about those old buildings is they’re all timber floors and timber frames so they would be reasonably easier to relocate than something with a concrete pad.”
Monaghan said there was a lot of landscaping and garden potential with the bush surrounds.
“It’s got quite a private setting – a picturesque setting when you come up to it. You can see it’s got the potential to do more on it. You could make it quite a spectacular property.”
“Nice coastal town, beautiful crystal-clear water. You’ve got east coast, west coast within 10 minutes, you’ve got the white sand beaches – you think Fiji is magic, you wait until you see the white sand beaches up there.”
Another unusual property up for grabs in the Far North is 1248A Oruru Road, in Peria. The 8ha plot and rundown dwelling at the address are being sold “as is” for $330,000.
Listing agent Sean Vercammen, of the Professionals, has pitched it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to own a slice of paradise in the rolling hills of the Peria Valley, about 13 minutes drive to Doubtless Bay.
Vercammen’s listing copy tells how the property was purchased in 1989 by “a passionate immigrant collector” but while the dwelling was now in a state of disrepair, it sat “amidst bush teeming with birdlife and echoes of yesteryear”.
The agent writes there is potential for a bed and breakfast or an eco-retreat, or someone could create a lifestyle property or their dream home.
