SCHOOL ZONES:
Waitoki School, Dairy Flat School, Orewa College.
CONTACT:
Bob Howard, Harcourts Kumeu, ph 021 709 555 or 412 7666.
FEATURES:
A replica of a French chateau, with four bedrooms and large separate living areas, opening out on to a terrace. On a 6ha grazing block near Waitoki, 35km northwest of Auckland City.
The entrance to number 770 Blackbridge Rd isn't so much a driveway as a portal to another country. Turn off the deserted rural road, pass through the wrought iron gates, cruise down the tree-lined driveway and pop out in Brittany.
Several decades ago a gay Kiwi couple fell in lovewith a chateau in the north-west of France. So enamoured were they that they decided to build a replica of it in a sheltered rural setting on 6ha near Waitoki, about 17km northwest of Albany. Up went a brick tower that forms the pivot of the house, encasing a winding polished concrete staircase, a marble floor (retrieved from Auckland's old Majestic Theatre), and a Renaissance-inspired mural on the domed ceiling. The couple encircled the tower with a 60sq m ballroom - with grand brick fireplace and five sets of French doors heading out on to a large tiled north-facing terrace - an elegant study and formal dining room, and a country-style kitchen and casual dining area.
Upstairs, they huddled four bedrooms and a bathroom under half-a-dozen gabled eaves, with rural views from a liberal scattering of casement windows. On the roof they installed gargoyles they'd brought back from France. They called it Chateau Pont-Noir (Blackbridge Castle).
The house has only changed ownership once since it was built in 1975. About 30 years ago, horse breeders Jack and Maisie Hurst were looking at properties in a real estate agent's window when they spotted the chateau. Though Maisie was intrigued, they were happy in their home, and Jack wasn't keen to move.
Three years passed, and Maisie couldn't get the chateau out of her head. One day she decided to check if it was still for sale. It was. The couple who'd built it weren't at all surprised by her renewed interest. "They'd had their fortunes told," says Maisie. "They were told, 'the lady with the horses will be back for it'."
But the decision was really made by Maisie's toy poodle. Normally reserved in new environments and around new people, she trotted straight up to a couch at the chateau and promptly sprawled out and went to sleep. Jack's resolve evidently melted in the face of such irrefutable intervention by fate, and they bought the property. There was still a lot of work to be done. The land around the house was dominated by messy scrub, which Jack and Maisie have spent years taming into gardens. It had two ponds but no fences, gates, paths or paddocks, so they sectioned it off into paddocks and built a four-box stable, an American-style barn and two hay sheds.
There was also some finishing to be done inside. They combined two of the bedrooms into one large suite, but their crowning glory was installing a stunning Italian chandelier in the tower.
Jack, 84, and Maisie, an energetic 89, are reluctant to leave. They're not downsizing, by any means, but they are moving to a property closer to family and hospitals, after a recent medical scare. "I've taken a lot of persuading," says Maisie, who had a difficult time finding a property with even a hint of the charm of the chateau. "They're all showhomes. There's no character to impress me. We've had a lot of fun here. There are a lot of good memories. I wouldn't shed any tears if we have to stay."
