The beautiful coastal house from The Roses movie does exist, or one very like it – in Tairua, Coromandel!

For those who have seen the film, The Roses, a marriage breakdown black comedy, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman, they may well remember the house Benedict, playing architect Theo Rose, designs - a stylish, ultra-modern, cliff top home overlooking the ocean that he lavishes all his creative energy on.

According to movie insiders, that house was actually a set, but a stunning Tairua home overlooking the ocean in the Coromandel town of Tairua, is similar in many ways, and the opportunity to buy it has just become a possibility.

For its South African owners, Russell and Robynne, this home at 167C Sailors Grave Road, Pumpkin Hill, has been a labour of love for the past ten years. 

Robynne designed the clifftop house which resembles a sea wave and gave the plans to an architect to take it through council.

“The inspiration for the house was very much Zen and Japanese inspired with stone cladding, Sugi, Japanese burnt wood cladding and Otsumigaki, Japanese clay/lime plaster,” she says.

They chose the site back in 2006 for its tranquillity, views, vegetation and privacy plus the magnificent beach, says Robynne.

The home looks over Te Karo Bay, also known as Sailors Grave Beach, a popular surf and rock fishing spot.

Robynne and Russell are both microbiologists and clinical chemists who love working with their hands, and they did all the concrete floor grinding and coating for the house, as well as making a lot of the cabinetry and some of the stunning light fittings.

“We have built five houses together with me doing a lot of the actual labour each time,” says Russell.

In the case of this top quality Tairua home, highly respected local company JP Builders built the house which has only been lived in intermittently as the couple live in South Africa.

The house, with a grand entry door, its art pieces and polished concrete floor, feels like a gallery when you enter it. At the same time, the owners have made sure there are plenty of cosy places to relax and take in the remarkable setting including a sunken conversation pit with day bed.

This is a home for entertaining with a designer kitchen, dining and lounge area all interconnected but separated by a soaring schist stone gas fire chimney for those winter nights.  The bedrooms have timber slat walls acting as both bed heads and room dividers.

The home’s two sumptuous bedroom suites are located at opposite ends of the house and an infinity-edge pool slots within the home as an added benefit, the perfect spot to overlook the ocean.

“The ambiance, when living in the house is amazing. Even when the wind is blowing, it doesn’t hit the house but seems to blow over it,” says Russell. “Even during the middle of the cyclones I showered outside – no wind there.”

“The house has a serene, uncomplicated ambience which is good for the soul, especially when the folding doors are open allowing the magnificent ocean vista and breeze to flow in,” adds Robynne.

The couple did the landscaping for their high-end home. “We both love nature and wildlife. Russell does a lot of photography, and we are inspired by our surroundings,” says Robynne.

The owners have permission to cut a direct track to the beach from the house, she says.

“It’s got that feeling of being by itself and in the bush, overlooking the beach and the ocean, but if you want to come into town, it is literally only 10 minutes away,” says their real estate agent, Andrew Gibson from Richardsons.

Andrew is selling the stunning property in a deadline sale by November 8 and says the vendors would consider offers over $4.5 million. The experienced agent believes this is one of the finest properties he’s ever seen on the Coromandel Peninsula.

“I just had a couple up there yesterday and they were just awestruck by the quality, the uniqueness and the light tones,” he says.

Andrew says he has already had some overseas inquiry from the UK and Australia, largely offshore New Zealanders living over there.

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