Jim Cleland and wife Sue are selling their Great Barrier home at Owhiti Bay, which has doubled as a clinic for Jim.
Jim Cleland and wife Sue are selling their Great Barrier home at Owhiti Bay, which has doubled as a clinic for Jim.
Jim Cleland has performed makeshift surgery on his Great Barrier Island dining room table, cured gout, dealt with amputated fingers and treated severe poisoning after a patient ate a toxic plant.
But he never charged for the work, instead accepting gifts of fresh seafood and wild game from his patients.
His secluded occasional "clinic" also doubles as his and wife Sue's picturesque waterfront holiday home, which the now retired clinical haematologist is reluctantly putting on the market.
"Almost 43 years for a 'townie doctor' who was only meant to last a year, the locals said, so I did pretty well. But the body is buggered at 77."
The 6ha Owhiti Bay property is accessible only by boat. It comes with its own tennis court and has an asking price "in the high two millions".
But how do you put a price on three generations of memories?
In late 1972, Dr Cleland decided he wanted a remote slice of coastal life to share with his family as a "special haven", purchasing the retreat the next year.
As well as hosting huge family gatherings, the property was also where Dr Cleland acted as one of the island's first intermittent doctors. He was frequently called on by district nurses to help with medical emergencies, particularly during the first 10 years when there was no resident island doctor.
The property at Owhiti Bay, Great Barrier Island.
Dr Cleland never charged for treatment. His patients instead showed their appreciation with gifts of crayfish, flounder, wild pork and sacks of rabbits. Owhiti Bay earned the name of Doctor's Bay by locals, as a reflection of Dr Cleland's services.
He treated an array of injuries over the years, many of them at his waterfront home.
One New Year's Eve night he was called on to treat a 7-year-old boy whose face had been savaged by the family dog. The child required 40 stitches but the lights failed during the three-hour procedure, which was completed in the shaky cross beams of two torches.
He also treated an ashen-faced wing commander who had amputated two fingers by catching them in an anchor chain, stitched up a deep gash in the forehead of a fisherman's son who fell on a boat, treated a patient suffering gout, and a poisoning victim who had eaten a toxic plant, causing a severe reaction.
"All the lining of his mouth, tongue and his oesophagus had been burnt off, and he was in extreme pain."
But with their advancing ages, the Clelands have decided to put the property on the market and share their time between homes in Glendowie and Scotts Landing, Mahurangi.
The Great Barrier property boasts a three-bedroom main house, three-bedroom cottage, and two one-bedroom chalets. It is valued at $670,000 but is expected to fetch much more because of upgrades and infrastructure including a surveyed wharf.
Bayleys agent Pat Regan said the property was a "private paradise" with enough bedrooms for 16 people.
