Paritai Drive, pictured from North Head. Photo / Richard Robinson
'The Real Housewives of Auckland' star Louise Wallace remembers a wonderful childhood of trespassing and playing rounders in the city's dress circle.
What's not to love about Paritai Drive? The dress circle of Auckland, where new money meets old, where bad taste meets good and where tourist buses rumble past every hour on the hour, full of perplexed-looking visitors. Where, on any night of the week, teenagers can be found smoking bongs,
eating Maccas and having sex in their car. Why would you want to live anywhere else?
Orakei is the best-kept secret in Auckland — Ngati Whatua weren't stupid — they knew a jewel when they saw one. Okay, so there are a few eyesores; a few monuments to architectural folly, some ghost houses, the occasional overgrown berm and the odd calling card that we step on during our morning constitutional. Apparently, rich people are too lazy to pick up dog poo.
People assume I'm new to P Drive but this has been my hood since I was a bouncy baby (give or take a few years in landlocked Remmers). I was brought up in Coates Ave until my parents built their state-of-the-art home in the front row in 1977. We moved in with the owners of Cardigan Bay on one side and the founder of Barker & Pollock on the other. Perhaps typically, I introduced myself to my mother's neighbour of 40 years, only the week he sold his house. He said: "I remember you when you were in your school uniform ... but I'm not a pervert." That was reassuring.
Our house was the first of its kind in Auckland and looked like something more suited to Mulholland Drive than Paritai. The best thing? We had our first swimming pool. The second best? My parents decided to live half the year in the United States, leaving me, at 17, flatting with my besties in a brand new mansion. Yeh!
