Lap of luxury

Cliff-top home includes heli-pad, entryreflection pools, wine cellar and theatre, writes Sandra Goodwin

Few Kiwis would have seen the likes of this $14.75m resort-like home, which sits on a majestic cliff-top site in Rodney, north of Auckland.

It even wowed its designer, architect Richard Priest.

The luxurious 1039sq m residence simply has everything — including helicopter pad, entryreflection pools, a reinforced glass viewing window that looks into the downstairs dining room/wine cellar, and a circular home theatre.

Says Richard: “It’s a remarkable piece of land with spectacular views back to the city and all the way out to the islands.”

Its owners did not brief Richard with a list of ‘musthaves’, preferring instead to let him exercise a strong creative vision.

“They only really asked for two things — an indoor swimming pool and a downstairs dining room/wine cellar,” he says.

“I was strongly influenced by the fact the owner really liked the simplicity of modernist style.”

The gated 5.67ha property also has an organic orchard and exotic gardens designed by Richard’s landscape designer wife, Sue Curtling.

The main entry to the house is behind a wall and via a bridge across the reflection pools.

Richard says it aims to reinforce “the idea that when you arrive at your house you walk beyond the wall and into the sanctuary of your home.”

The exterior includes schist, block-work and precast concrete, topped with a low-pitch iron roof with deep eaves.

A sunken lounge luxuriant with merino-silk carpet and a fireplace opens to two paved and sheltered courtyard terraces, both with outdoor fireplaces.

A sumptuous expanse of living spreads across the seaward end of the home, unfurling a bespoke kitchendining room and an office encompassing an impressive floor-to-ceiling curved library.

Gold and red velvet curtains allow viewers in the home theatre to shut themselves off from the world.

There are two sleeping wings, separated by a stunning atrium garden. One wing has the master suite, the other has three bedrooms.

All feature walk-through wardrobing and en suite bathrooms tiled with Bisazza glass and opening on to timber verandas.

New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty agents Athena Wang and Prudence Foster are marketing 10 Jackson Cres, Mahurangi East.

They say: “From the moment we arrived we knew we were going to see an exceptional residence.”