Omaha in the 80s was the best time for Aucklander Jo Clark and her family, who were among the first to build there.
"There was nothing. It was paradise," said Clark.
The family paid $6,000 for a 580sqm section, a few blocks back from the beach.
In those days you could only buy at "the old end" and not beachfront property. The Clarks built a four-bedroom bach on the land, which now has a valuation of more than $700,000.
"For three or four years, kids could ride a bike, they could race over sections and make bonfires. There was no traffic, there were no houses, there was no nothing," said Clark.
With its long beach and sheltered bay, Omaha had it all: great swimming, surfing, boating and fishing.
Graeme Norton has enjoyed Omaha since he was a boy. Photo / Doug Sherring
Nearby Matakana, now a bustling town with cinemas, restaurants, art shops and vineyards, was just a gas station and a butchery.
Clark's daughter Sarah George spent every summer holiday roaming around Omaha. Now her three children aged 6, 11 and 15 do the same.
"My kids can be kids up there - they've got bikes and skateboards, they can go away for a few hours and come back to eat. Stuff they can't do in Auckland. There's one road in and one road out."
A few years after the Clarks built, beachfront properties came on the market for $25,000. Now they're going for more than $3 million.
This is the "new old" area at the northern tip which came along about 10 years later. These houses are still mainly baches with a few flasher recent arrivals.
There were no building restrictions on these houses, and so began the rise of three-storey beachfront homes.
Then there's the "new" section at the southern end, where the mansions stare out over recently-planted treelines of imported palms.
Large sections, matching three-storey kitset homes. Pristine tennis courts. A boat named Sodoffski is parked in a driveway, plus a brand new sporty Peugeot with personalised number plate.
Some of Omaha's oldtimers aren't too impressed about the nouveau riche who have built their palaces down the road. George agrees there is a bit of a divide.
"We always joke about how you have to put your lipstick on to go down to the 'new' end."
Some of George's friends have moved from old to new and now they're worried about getting the bathroom dirty.
"We had some friends who had a normal beachy house and they bought a new place down the road.
"They said it's lovely being in a new fancy house but I'm always cleaning it and I'm always telling the kids 'don't use that bathroom'. It had changed the whole vibe of the holiday."
John Key has a holiday home in the 'new' end. Photo / Chris Gorman
Prime Minister John Key was one of the first to buy a piece of paradise at Omaha's northern end, and said he has noticed a dramatic change in the area over the years.
"I think the addition of the southern end has been good for Omaha. Of course it makes the beach and surrounding facilities more congested but it has also allowed for the development of more things to do and places to visit, such as the cafe on the beach."
The cricket oval-sized block of land across the causeway from Omaha has been in Graeme Norton's family for three generations. The former Kiwis rugby league coach has enjoyed every summer in the area since he was a boy, and has had as many as 100 family and friends staying at his block.
He would be sitting on a goldmine if he ever chose to subdivide and sell, but Norton has no intention of doing that.
He's a big fan of the development that's gone into the area.
Paul Russell moved to the new part of Omaha six years ago and runs his design business in Matakana.
The married father of two calls Omaha "Perfectville".
"It's almost like you're going on holiday every time you go home."
A lot of young families are moving to Omaha full-time, he says, and celebrities mingle comfortably with Omaha locals. As well as the prime minister, property owners have include All Blacks, Team NZ skipper Dean Barker and wife, and one of the country's wealthiest women, Diane Foreman, who bought fashion designer Dame Trelise Cooper's bach.
Russell returned from a business trip to China to learn that Mike Hosking and Kate Hawkesby had rented the house in front of theirs. "I came back and she'd been over most nights at my place drinking wine with my wife. You get people like that up there and they just blend in."
Russell helps out at the Omaha Beach Residents Society, where membership is compulsory for those living at the "new" end. At the "old" end, there's a bit of resistance and they don't force people to pay the $258.75 fee. Proceeds go towards a security guard.
"There's not a lot of toerags floating around," said Russell. "If there are, they're usually dealt with."
