Collectors’ masterpiece

Coast and Country

There are many quiet little spots on Waiheke Island that remain best-kept secrets, and one of the most appealing is a narrow road that curves around the ridge above Oneroa Village.

Up there, you can have your choice of sea views, the cafes, shops, art gallery and beach are an easy stroll away, and the ferry into the city is just down the hill.

The location certainly appealed to Glenn Rees when he and his wife were looking for a new Waiheke home.

Glenn has a long association with Waiheke Island — he occasionally worked there as a young surveyor in the mid 1950s.

He and his wife bought their first property there on returning to New Zealand after living in Fiji — “I missed island life and being near the water, and this was the best substitute I could get,” Glenn says.

They bought a bach right in the middle of Oneroa, Waiheke’s main village, and moved between there and their rural block of land at Okura.

“Waiheke was our townhouse, because we could walk to the shops and there was a restaurant right across the road.”

Their second property, which Glenn says was his ideal house, unfortunately burned down, and was replaced with this spacious two-bedroom house in Tiri Rd. Unlike many Waiheke houses, this one was built as a permanent home and not a bach, so it was sturdily constructed of weatherboard.

But typical of houses built in the 60s, it didn’t make the best of the views, and the only access to the splendid coastal vistas from the kitchen/dining area was through a tiny serving hatch to the lounge.

The other rooms were inward-looking, and the only deck was on top of the water tank, accessed via what Glenn describes as “awful sliding doors”.

He engaged an architect to advise on how the house might be re-designed. The plans extended the kitchen and dining areas, and opened the whole living space up to the views.

The 2m-wide hallway that led to the bedrooms was narrowed to make room for a stylish new bathroom.

Luckily, the house was built before particle board floors became the norm and the existing timber floorboards were matched in the kitchen extension.

The renovation enabled Glenn to enjoy the views of Oneroa Bay and the village, and Blackpool and Huruhi Bay and across to the mainland.

The architect made sure the windows were carefully placed to maximise the vantage point, and big decks were added on two sides of the house.

The bedrooms needed very little work. Glenn uses the smaller of the two as his office: from his desk, he can look out over the water to the city and Beachhaven. “It’s been an ideal location,” he says. “My late wife and I owned the Dorothy Butler Children’s Bookshop in Ponsonby, and we could be in town in no time.