Relaxed seaside living
As a city girl, Janene Holyoake wasn’t so sure about a move to Gulf Harbour. So much so, that she made her husband Ken promise they could move back if she didn’t like it, and they rented instead of buying.
On the other hand, Ken was a convert after visiting a friend there and playing the golf course at Gulf Harbour Country Club.
And after almost 12 years here, Janene, also a keen golfer, is now a big fan of the laidback lifestyle with the focal points being the golf course and marina.
“I think the lifestyle here is a bit of a secret. I can go for days without getting in my car — you can walk or bike most places you want to go,” Janene says.
It also helps that the couple have built a relaxed seaside home they call Sea Cliff House on a clifftop section they bought in 2003 with wide views across Okoromai Bay to Shakespear Regional Park.
Janene says they took 21⁄ years to design the home, with input from architect Graham Pitts, architectural draftsman Kelvin Drew, and architect Rick Lambourne, who advised on the passive solar elements of the design.
Finished in 2008, the two-level home has a grassed reserve/walkway on its seaward side that winds between the Holyoakes’ home and those of their neighbours.
“It’s all reserve in front of us so we can never be built out,” Janene says.
From the approach down a right of way, the home presents a conventional face but on the seaward side it has a more relaxed coastal feel and is tied to its surroundings with landscaping formed by boulders and garden beds containing hardy natives and succulents.
“I’m a very keen gardener so it was important for me to have a connection between the house and garden,” Janene says. “I was trucking in top soil and flaxes before the house was even out of the ground.”
More formal gardens wrap around the main living area and frame a “summer house”, an outdoor entertaining area built with vitex timber that has a slatted roof and grape vines twining around it.
With Ken having a background in environmental science, a lot of thought went into the engineering of the home and making it sustainable.
It is constructed from ECO-Block — hollow polystyrene blocks strengthened with reinforcing steel and filled with concrete — and when it was built eight
years ago had above-code insulation installed as well as double glazing before it was compulsory.
“We figured that if we went double the building code we would be current in a few years’ time,” says Ken.
The home also has a water tank, grey-water system, polyethylene rather than PVC pipes, and underfloor heating, which the couple hardly uses.
Some of this set-up can be seen in the basement, which the couple have set up as a games room with a large mancave/workshop off it.
On the ground floor, a double-height foyer has tall windows that give a hint of the sea view. Off to the right is a guest wing with two bedrooms and two bathrooms.
Ken’s office, also with sea views, is off the foyer before you take the hallway to the main living area, passing the library, which also overlooks the water.
With tongue-and-groove timber ceilings, matching the soffits on the deep eaves over the seaward-facing deck, the main living area has a elegant, boat house feel. The neutral colour scheme makes this a serene space, with stacking sliders opening it to the deck and views.
The kitchen, which has a pantry off it, has a servery out to the deck that transitions to the summer house.
Upstairs, the master bedroom has a tiled en suite and walk-in dressing room.
The Holyoakes are moving to a property in the Bay of Plenty to be closer to family. Not so coincidentally, their new home will be right beside a golf course.