For Karen and David Branks, life at the peninsular end of their bush clad street is a life awash with nature. They live among it by day and by night in privacy, dining from their deck, taking in the bush/beach walks and taking an evening bath on their deckbeneath the stars.
Their nearest neighbour is 100m away in the bush, and together these two homeowners share the exclusive peninsula-end water views and a give-and-take relationship between.
"Our kayak is in his boatshed and he mows the driveway lawn," says David. "We toss the newspaper on to his driveway when we've finished reading it."
Some 2km across the tidal waters of Little Muddy Creek, Karen and David look out to the houses that dot the South Titirangi bush and the dog walkers and beachgoers on the foreshore below.
Life inside this 1940s board and batten cottage is life in the wings, off a central stage of lawn with native trees, flaxes and ornamental grasses bordering the lawn down to the water. Theirs is a near-180 degree view up north to Titirangi and south to the Manukau Harbour.
"My land is my canvas. I'm the crazy one outdoors," says David, who is tilling this soil when he's not coaching tennis professionally.
The previous owner was a software developer who worked out of the office/small single bedroom, with little interest in the outdoors. He told Karen and David there was a bird that used to land on lawn but he didn't know what it was. It turned out to be the resident kingfisher who introduced himself to Karen and David when they moved in, in October 2013.
16 Dorothy Road. Photo / Supplied
Birdlife including terns, oystercatcher and native birds still fascinate them nearly five years on, as do the weekend paddle boarders, jet skiers and kayakers and the night-time flounder fishermen.
For Karen and David, this has been a different perspective on life in Titirangi where they lived previously and where, by chance, they saw a photo of this property in a real estate agency window.
During their six-month settlement, the previous owner let David get started on the grounds that had been edged with bluestone from a quarry owned by an earlier owner here.
Out went green detritus and in came 14 trailerloads of plants for every area from the driveway to the mass-planted shaded beds and the textural foliage accented with garden art.
The water is Karen and David's first view of the day when the sun pours in through their bedroom window from behind the South Titirangi peninsula. When they repainted the house inside and out, they chose to keep their new, white-framed double-glazed windows devoid of curtains and blinds.
16 Dorothy Road. Photo / Supplied
Now there are no distractions to the views from this five-room house with its master bedroom, lounge and office/bedroom facing the water and the kitchen/dining area and bathroom/laundry looking out to the bush-lined driveway.
"The view is just incredible. It's amazing," says David. "Everyone who comes in here from the carpet layer to the vinyl layer says 'wow' and raves about the million dollar views.
"It could be Waiheke Island or the Bay of Islands out there and I think of it as a bit of Kiwiana, really.
"The sea, peninsular views, the bush, no near neighbours — it's crazy. How can you be living in Auckland and living in a spot like this?"
Now David and Karen, a creche manager, are moving to Whangamata where he'll play tennis, rather than coach it, play golf and go fishing.
