SCHOOL ZONES:
Takapuna Primary School, Takapuna Normal Intermediate School, Westlake Girls High School and Takapuna Grammar School
CONTACT:
Lynda Betts, Bayleys, 021 278 3024.
AUCTION:
July 28 (unless sold prior).
Helen Creagh remembers the old days of the Mon Desir pub in Takapuna, and now she lives there. Well, not quite in the pub but on the site where the iconic Takapuna beachfront bar once stood.
Helen's apartment is part of a complex that replaced the pub after it closedmore than 20 years ago.
She is on the ground floor and looks out past a sprawling pohutukawa to the beach, which is only a few steps away.
From her wide front deck, one of two, she can see passersby as they head down to the beach for a swim or to take their dogs for walks.
"It's like being on holiday. It's lovely out here."
Just a stroll down the road is the Takapuna Beach Cafe with an attached icecream shop - in her opinion staff scoop out the best icecream in Takapuna - and she can see this from her deck as well.
"Takapuna beach has become a bit like a promenade, especially in evening times and in the summer," she says.
"It's like the Spanish feel, you know, people go walking. It's really nice and there are dogs and a lot of people."
The prime location sold her on this apartment, as did the former owner who showed her around.
"She was an 83-year-old and was just gorgeous. She had a collection of angels, showed us the house and chatted to us and gave my daughter some little paper angels.
"I'm not kidding, she had an angel toilet roll holder, everything - she had angel socks that lit up."
Image 1 of 7: The holiday vibe is easy when the beach is just a few steps away. Photos / Fiona Goodall, Getty Images
Helen moved here with her two children after her marriage broke up and was looking for somewhere peaceful to reinvent herself.
The former owner had created a great vibe "and she made me feel like this would be a good place to live, cause I knew she'd been really happy here".
Helen has made some life changes while living here, including a decision to retrain as a psychotherapist.
The apartment is in easy walking distance to all of Takapuna's amenities, so shops, bars and restaurants - and the Sunday markets, which she loves.
There is the use of a gym, sauna and pool - "My daughter plays water polo and she goes out there all the time. She's a fish."
Helen also loves the wide open space of the apartment, which has a master bedroom with a walk-in wardrobe almost big enough to be another bedroom.
She redid the ensuite and divided the kitchen, dining and lounge areas into zones, defining them with colour.
Hers is one of 150 apartments, which have two secure car parks and a shopping trolley system to take the pain out of unloading groceries from the car.
There's also a rubbish shute just outside on the ground floor so you don't even have to take the rubbish out.
"It's really convenient. It's easy living."
The windows are tinted for privacy and the temperature inside is always spot on; warm in winter and cool in summer.
Helen will miss not just the apartment but the prime location - up the road are movie theatres and down the bottom of the street is a walk between Takapuna and Milford, one of the top five coastal walks in New Zealand.
Although she hadn't planned on leaving quite so soon, the right house came up unexpectedly.
