The School house, Kawau Island: Anchor me

An island building steeped in history is ready to begin a new chapter, 

The Schoolhouse, 9 Schoolhouse Bay Road, Kawau Island. It's hard to believe that three Auckland yachties who have been living the Kiwi dream have decided to give it up. 

Eight years ago they bought the Schoolhouse on Kawau Island. A rustic two-storey weatherboard home on the waterfront, it is not only north-facing in a sheltered harbour but has its own deep-water mooring. There's also a wharf about 100m away. 

Cedric Allan, Martin Gillman and Greg Tabron had been looking around for a property they could use as a holiday home and a sailing base. 

Cedric says, "We'd been sailing together a good many years and we'd been talking about buying a waterfront property with deep water mooring so that it would mesh well with sailing." 

They saw that the Schoolhouse was for sale, and pounced. 

"It's quite charming; it's not a pretentious Tuscan villa or anything like that," says Cedric. 

"It's still faithful to the original homestead but with modern comforts - it's like the Kiwi bach writ large." 

The home has polished kauri floors downstairs through the open plan kitchen/dining area and the adjoining living room with its open fire. Both these areas open out to decking overlooking the bay. A spa pool sits at one end of the deck. There are two bedrooms on the ground level as well as the bathrooms. The home is surrounded by flat lawns - quite rare on Kawau. 

Painted floors give the upstairs a Cape Cod feel. There are two more bedrooms and two bunk rooms up here as well as a smaller room that has some of the school's old kauri desks. 

All the rooms on the northern side of the house have views over the bay and out through Bon Accord Harbour. This makes it easy for Cedric and Martin to keep an eye on their 15m yacht, Woolly Jumper, as she swings at her mooring just off the main wharf. 

Cedric says not only is Kawau a largely unspoilt location, but the history of the home and the island are fascinating. 

"You do get caught up in the history because it's all around you." 

Kawau was home to a copper mining settlement before Sir George Grey, then Governor of New Zealand, bought it in 1862. 

Sir George developed Mansion House as well as indulging his love of exotic plants and animals. He introduced many plants, including palm trees and Moreton Bay figs, and animals such as monkeys, wallabies, kookaburras and zebras. The latter were used to draw his carriage about the island. 

The wallabies remain, still keeping the grass trimmed around the schoolhouse, which was originally two rooms when built in the 1870s. As Grey developed the island - adding an abattoir, dairy and farm buildings - so the schoolhouse grew to accommodate the new employees' children. 

"It's quite a unique place," says Cedric, "and not just because of the history. 

"There is a microclimate in the bay because of its northern exposure and the high land protecting it from the south. In winter it's not unusual to walk over to the copper mine and look out over a sea of white caps whipped up by a biting southwesterly only to return to the Schoolhouse and be quickly back in shorts and a T-shirt in the sun." 

Over the years, Cedric and his yachtie mates have had some memorable gatherings, with up to 20 people staying at the Schoolhouse and the overflow staying on their boats in the harbour. 

As well as big get-togethers, friends would make the hour and a half journey from Auckland just to stop by for the day. 

"Kawau is so accessible," says Cedric. "People come and visit us for lunch in exactly the same way they would if we had a bach at Leigh, and they have all the fun of the boat trip thrown in." 

Cedric says the decision to sell the Schoolhouse was a tough one, but dreams change and he and Martin want to spend more time cruising on the boat. 

"It's been great on Kawau but you don't want to do the same thing forever," he says. 

So once their cruising base is sold they are looking at adventures further afield: sailing around parts of New Zealand, maybe a trip to New Caledonia and a journey up the east coast of Australia. 

But Cedric says they will take away a locker full of happy memories of the times they shared with friends at the Schoolhouse. 

Vital Statistics: 

BEDROOMS: 6 

BATHROOMS: 3 

No GARAGE 

SIZE: Land 1399sq m. 

PRICE INDICATION: Interest expected above $1 million. Auction May 17. 

INSPECT: Agent on site Saturday May 6 and Sunday May 7, 11am-3pm. 

CONTACT: Linda Goodfellow, Bayleys Warkworth, ph 09 425 7640 bus, 
021 968 640. 

FEATURES: North-facing, waterfront home with flat lawns, spacious decks and spa pool. Overlooks Schoolhouse Bay and Bon Accord Harbour beyond. An all-tide wharf and safe deep-water anchorage are close by. Reubens Water Taxis leave from Sandspit.