A peaceful, healing place
Lesley and Anthony Sunde chanced upon this property for sale four years ago on a Sunday drive. “We fell in love with the house and the beautiful grounds,” says Lesley. The grounds and mature trees certainly are magnificent. There are maple trees along the driveway, huge magnolias, a fruit orchard — quinces, apples, peaches, grapefruit, oranges, mandarins — and an enclosed vegetable garden.
“I planted all the plants around the house but the mature trees were here including the Norfolk pine,” says Lesley.
“There is a long country garden along one side of the house which constantly has different plants flowering, like rhododendrons, magnolias, cosmos, daisies. It goes from one colour to another because different plants flower at different times.
“We have daffodils along the driveway and irises; the irises are still going now.”
Because of the property’s picture-postcard prettiness, their son chose to have his New Zealand wedding ceremony on the property after marrying overseas. This took part in the part of the driveway with an avenue of trees that Lesley and Anthony call the chapel.
“My son and his wife lived in the cottage for about 18 months before and after they married.”
The Sundes had bought the property in conjunction with their son, who spent time recuperating here soon after the purchase, as he had been unwell.
They then found out the property had also been used as a healing place by the previous owner. Lesley understands she was a top New Zealand model, who built the French country style home, then called Dreamfields, and added the cottage at the end for people recovering after facelifts.
The layout has the main home, a double garage, an office and a cottage, but all are built as one building.
You come into the board and batten house, with its white beamed ceilings, off the big covered deck.
There you have the open plan living area with kitchen and its tiled benches and Ilve gas/electric stove and pantry, a big country style dining table, and the lounge with the open fireplace and TV cabinet.
You move further down the home to the main bedroom, wardrobe and en suite. Further along the hallway is a laundry, another bedroom and en suite.
On the other side of the hallway is another bedroom that the couple use as a reading room.
All the house opens along the front through bifold or french doors to the veranda.
At the other end of the home are one garage, the office, another garage and then the cottage that has open plan lounge, dining and kitchen, a bedroom and an en suite.
The Sundes’ views look over the magnificent grounds with hills in the background.
Since the couple bought this property, they have been dividing their time between here and their Auckland property.
“We come up here for a week or 10 days when we feel like it, as we are retired,” says Lesley.
“Point Wells is a peaceful area and the people are lovely.
“We just relax when we come here, and we do the garden and the lawns. We go out for dinner in Warkworth, there are heaps of restaurants and places to eat up here. We go exploring, to Omaha Beach and some of the other beaches like Mathesons Bay.
“We love this house and its surrounds but we are finding it difficult living between two places.
“My son has moved into his own house, and Point Wells has served its purpose.
“My husband and I are both in our 70s now, and we have bought a campervan and we are going to go away in the campervan on trips.”