Palm trees, waterway access and jet-boat dock all in the middle of suburbia

When Gisborne-raised Kate Thorpe first saw her house at 86 Meadowbank Road, with her husband Nick, she felt as if she was back home, rather than in an Auckland suburb.

The property is on a freehold 2,175m² section with riparian rights to a non-tidal waterway and views across Ōrākei Basin.

“We fell in love with it because it was a huge piece of land in the middle of the city and obviously it was on the water, and at the time the previous owners had chickens. We laughed that it probably cost us another couple of hundred thousand just because it had chickens!” says Kate.

“But it kind of sold us the dream of what we could create,” she adds.

And create they did.

The couple, who bought the home in 2011, lived there for a few years before, in 2016, gutting the house, turning it on its head, and starting again.

They put all the living rooms – kitchen, living and dining, on the ground floor in a pavilion style space, and five bedrooms were created upstairs, plus an attic for storage.

“The reason why the house works so well is there’s the main living and kitchen, and then there’s a great rumpus room for kids with sliding doors so that you can close them off,” says Kate.

Nick likes the floor to ceiling sliders they’ve got on the main level which are 10 metres wide. “When you’re sitting inside it just feels like you are outside, it’s just an extension of the outdoors,” he says.

The parents of three sons also put in a pool, spa, deck and a pool house with bedroom and ensuite all surrounded with tropical landscaping.

Nick loves seeing people’s reactions when they come to the house.

“People come in totally unsuspecting. At the entrance it looks like a standard bungalow and it’s not until they walk down the stairs and it just hits them. We still love to see people come down for the first time and respond with shock by what they see.”

Over the years, Kate has brought more of her Gisborne home to the property.

“I come from orchards, so we’ve kind of created a little orchard at the back which has every variety of citrus. And then we’ve got feijoa trees, apple trees and bananas. And we had beehives and a couple of chickens, Coco and Chanel, who provided us with eggs and extra entertainment.”

The lawn has been a place for many football, cricket and croquet games.

“The boys were always out there and because the section faces north, we had all-day sun,” says Kate.

Because it’s down a long palm-tree lined driveway, the family’s activities are quite hidden. “You can’t see the house from the road and you’re not looking at any other neighbours. It’s very private in that respect,” says Kate.

At the same time there is plenty going on around Meadowbank Road. Meadowbank Primary is just a block away and the local shops are nearby too.

For Nick, a lot of the home’s appeal has always been about the access to the water.

The father of three boys has a favourite spot on the lower lawn of the property - tucked away is a 1.2 metre round fire pit with solid macrocarpa sleepers and bench seats.

“It looks directly down the waterway and into the sunset. It’s the most beautiful place to sit and socialise,” he says.

“We’ve got a floating dock with kayaks and paddle boards. You can even have a jet boat that can park up there and you can go out and water ski in the Ōrākei Basin,” he adds.

In the past few years an opportunity came up to get more involved in Kate’s family orchards, so they’ve moved to Gisborne.

“We think it’s best to let another family enjoy the experience of what we got to do,” says Nick, who says it’s bittersweet letting it go.

“We’re hoping for the right family, someone who can carry on and enjoy and appreciate it as much as we did.”

This family home with an CV of $5.4 million goes to auction on February 20 through Ray White agent Richard Thode. The auction will be held at the property, unusually. Auctions are only held on site if they are extraordinary, Thode has told the couple. And this property is worthy of that.