Great good fortune

The couple who live in this modernist marvel still can’t believe their luck.

The couple who live in this modernist marvel still can’t believe their luck.

In the quiet Kapiti Coast town of Waikanae, a mid-century retreat fondly known as Riverbank offers its owners Tara Morton and Nick Walbridge an idyllic escape from their busy jobs in the nearby capital. Surrounded by rambling gardens, the home’s intriguing geometry juts out into painterly foliage that filters light inside through floor-to-ceiling windows surrounding the house from front to back.

Tara and Nick hadn’t always considered a secluded sanctuary the ultimate place to call home. Over the years, their work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade led to offshore postings in locations like Beijing, Cairo, Washington DC and New York, so for a long time they were all about big-city life.

“Tara stumbled across the online listing for Riverbank while working in Egypt in 2015,” says Nick. “We’d been living in New York for five years and were on the hunt for a home back in New Zealand, and its lush botanical greenery seemed like a welcome tonic to Cairo’s sand and dust. Having accidentally not filtered her property search to make it specific to Wellington City, she wound up getting hooked on Riverbank before she realised it was actually in Waikanae.”

Back in New York, it took some convincing to get Nick on board with the idea that a large property in small-town New Zealand was the antidote to the hustle and bustle of their expat lifestyle. “The idea of moving to Waikanae and taking on such a huge place seemed ludicrous — especially with our limited gardening expertise, having lived in apartments for years,” he says.

When Riverbank disappeared from the