KING OF BIRDS

Looking for a property that has everything, including wildlife? You’ve just found it, discovers ERIN REILLY

Immense. That is the only word that accurately describes 34 Kingfisher Grove in Greenhithe. As you open the front electric gate, a long sweeping driveway takes you past a tennis court to the main house where you’ll find five bedrooms, three bathrooms, a massive living, kitchen and dining space, numerous living spaces, and three-car garaging. Outside is a pool complete with waterslide, tennis court with moveable net, and an additional building with a gym, sauna, spa and 16-car showroom for all your toys. The remainder of the property’s 4040sq m of land (complete with two titles) features pristine landscaping that, all combined, creates a property that needs to be seen to be believed.

The surrounding environment was a key consideration when the owners built this expansive, no-holdsbarred home 20 years ago.

“On one side is reserve, directly in front is the Upper Harbour and the back of Paremoremo Reserve, and to the left looks out towards Riverhead and Coatesville. There’s a huge amount of birdlife here [including] tuis, moreporks and, funnily enough, kingfishers. We really feel like we live amongst the wildlife here.”

When they designed this property alongside architect Richard Priest, their children were toddlers, so the home needed to evolve as the kids got older.

“Interconnecting living spaces can be closed off for privacy and opened up to maximise space. This has given us a huge amount of flexibility as the kids have gotten older. Downstairs there’s a room that used to have a pool table in it, it’s been a bedroom for elderly parents, it’s been a separate games room, and now it’s another lounge. What we now call our media room has been a sleepover room for teenagers. The playroom that used to be filled with toys has become a private snug that can be closed off so boyfriends and girlfriends can hang out together … although I don’t like that part quite as much.”

There’s plenty of room for adults too. Inside, the formal dining room complete with fireplace is a sophisticated escape. Upstairs the master suite opens out onto a private balcony and enjoys stunning views across the water. Outside, the living spaces can open up so the distinction between inside and out is virtually nonexistent.

“We’ve hosted countless dinners, events and functions here. Seamless indoor/outdoor flow makes it a breeze to entertain, and the fact that we can completely open up the space means that if we can think

“We’ve hosted countless dinners, events and functions here. Seamless indoor/ outdoor flow makes it a breeze to entertain...”

it, we can probably do it.”

Separate to the main house is the gym, spa, sauna and specialty garage complex, built about nine years ago.

“A neighbouring house came up for sale and we’d always wanted to build a tennis court, so we bought it. Richard Priest designed these buildings too. They didn’t have to be identical to the main house, but they did have to be part of the same family.

“If you didn’t know otherwise, you’d think it was all built at the same time.”

It’s not just No 34 that offers the kind of lifestyle most of us would only dream of; the whole street is a local legend.

“Kingfisher Grove has always been known as ‘the’ street in Greenhithe,” says Premium agent Alison Parker. “Greenhithe offers a really unique lifestyle that nowhere else in Auckland can. The views, the water, the tranquillity of the native bush all around … to me, that’s the perfect lifestyle property.” Sale: Price guide over $6 million Contact: Alison Parker, Premium, 021 983 533; Corey Knapp, 021 241 0081