Luxurious apartments lap Onetangi shores

By VICKI HOLDER

The Sands on Onetangi, an exclusive Waiheke Island resort, will capture the essence of relaxed and luxurious beachfront living.

To be built on one of the best sites on the island, The Sands will occupy a large property that was once the site of the old McGinty's Pub at the far end of Onetangi Beach. It sits along The Strand, a quiet beachfront road, where traffic is mainly of the walking kind.

About 10 minutes' drive from Matiatia Wharf, the gently sloping property reaches into a bank, sheltered between two rural headlands. With views of the Coromandel Peninsula, Onetangi is a beautiful, safe, sandy, white beach with a pleasant wilderness feel.

Developed by Michael Toogood of Horizon Construction and Hawkes Bay businessman and farmer Ivan Grieve, The Sands is designed as a low-maintenance, secure, high-quality urban escape. To ensure the reality meets the vision, the developers partnered two of New Zealand's most renowned, award-winning design firms to create an unparalleled coastal classic that is sure to set a benchmark. Both architects Cook, Sargisson & Pirie and interior designer Martin Hughes have considerable experience in creating superb tourist facilities in New Zealand and overseas.

It took the developers two years to obtain resource consent to build the residential apartment complex, which will comprise 31 apartments and three penthouses.

Five three-bedroom, three-bathroom villas on freehold titles will stretch across the front of the property, which has a shared barbecue and wash-down facility by the beach.

Behind the villas, a stand-alone building will feature six two-bedroom apartments, each with two en suite bathrooms. Further back, behind a landscaped parking area, another building will house three-bedroom penthouses, one, two and three-bedroom apartments and accommodation for a live-in manager. Some homes will have uninterrupted, panoramic views, and all apartments will have sea views.

Simple, unpretentious beach-inspired architecture will offer timeless styling, distinguished by high-quality, natural materials.

Construction begins on The Sands this week. But a display suite built on the water's edge offers a glimpse of what the completed accommodation will be like.

The exterior will feature copper roofing, cedar joinery and Lawson cypress and Fijian kauri under the eaves. Living areas will feature internal cedar shutters across bifold windows and aluminium shutters above the windows to allow cross-ventilation. Fossil-stone or limestone benches will reach across windows or flow on to decks.

Inside, living areas will be big and open, with vistas that extend from the bedrooms to the beach. Flooring will be solid kwila or eucalyptus and an easy-to-maintain, 100 per cent woven wool carpet, designed especially for sandy beach conditions.

Kitchens in these open-plan living environments will feature stainless steel or dark granite island benches. Kitchen cabinetry and integrated Fisher & Paykel appliances will be protected by an extremely hard-wearing automative paint finish.

Highly textured surfaces continue in the bathroom, where white porcelain basins will perch on pebbled benchtops between multi-ple storage cabinets. Long, thin white floor and wall tiles will offset the richness of the other surfaces.

Woven fibre screen doors to bedrooms, on cabinetry and bed-ends will add a tropical ambience.

Alarm systems in every apartment will add to the security given by the on-site manager. Electric Siemens wall panels will provide heating. Walls filled with concrete will ensure nobody has to tolerate neighbours' noise.

Extensive landscaping and subtle outdoor lighting will enhance the beauty of the surrounding area.

Just 35 minutes by ferry from Auckland, Waiheke Island is the answer for those who would rather spend their spare time relaxing on the beach than travelling.