SCHOOL ZONES:
Campbells Bay
School, Mairangi Bay School, Murrays
Bay Intermediate, Rangitoto College,
Westlake Boys' High School, Westlake
Girls' High School.
FEATURES:
A four-bedroom clifftop
property overlooking Campbells Bay,
with direct access to the beach. The
11-year-old cedar and concrete home
has informal and formal living, and a large
outdoor entertaining area with pool.
It's no quirk of fate that even the laundry at Neil Darroch's family-owned, Campbells Bay home has a towering, pohutukawa-framed view of sand, sea and Hauraki Gulf islands.
When Neil and his late wife, Jen, built a new home on the spot 11 years ago, their number one priority wasto create a house that did justice to its commanding 2774sq m clifftop position.
After living on the property for more than a decade, they came to a gradual realisation that the original house just wasn't worth preserving. Their overriding instruction to architect Jeanette Budgett was to design a brand new home that was in sympathy with the site.
And what a site they have. On a clear day, Great Barrier Island and the Coromandel Peninsula are etched on the horizon, and Neil's even spotted tiny Cuvier Island, off the east coast of the peninsula.
A "sympathetic" home means that while Neil is working at his favourite spot at the dining table, he can open the bifold doors and take in the pool, the pohutukawa and the ocean beyond. It means he can sit at his outdoor table in the backyard and listen to the waves breaking below. It means he can enjoy an early-evening scotch in the family room while checking out the action on the quiet beach.
It means that when Jen was ailing she was soothed by the stunning outlook towards Rangitoto Island from the upstairs master bedroom, which was fashioned as a tree house in the pohutukawa. Even the main bathroom has a window that looks more like a dreamy landscape painting.
The architect also ensured that the colours of the home toned in with the pohutukawa that fringe it, with slate-hued cedar weatherboards and silver joinery. A striking chandelier in the soaring atrium above the dining table is about the only attention-seeking element of the house, which is evidently designed to draw the gaze outwards.
The home is divided into casual and more formal living areas, with the kitchen and family room able to be shut off from the lounge and dining room.
As well as the master suite upstairs, with Juliet balcony, en suite and walk-in wardrobe, there's a spacious guest suite, with bathroom and storage room, that opens out to the tiled, outdoor entertaining area.
Neil uses a mezzanine space with its own veranda as his study, and there is a downstairs study that was once Jen's, but both could be used as bedrooms.
For the moments when you want to become part of the scenery, there's a path through the property down to the beach. Neil enjoys strolling along Campbells Bay - an often forgotten link between Castor Bay and Mairangi Bay. If he gets bored with that he can head around to Mairangi Bay and then follow the coastal walkway to Murrays Bay.
Neil hopes to stay in the area in which he's lived for 23 years, but acknowledges that his house has far too much room for one person.
