– A Waiheke Island lifestyle block, originally bought for $43,000 in 1971, is now looking for buyers with $12m-plus to spend.
– The 4.4ha property features a four-bedroom farmhouse, with seclusion and proximity to the ferry.
– Owners Paul and Chris Chisholm have farmed alpacas and grown olives, but now find the farm work too demanding.
A Waiheke Island lifestyle block that sold for $43,000 in 1971 has returned to market 54 years later, looking for buyers with $12 million-plus to spend.
New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty agent Pene Milne, who is marketing 54 Korora Road, in Oneroa, told OneRoof: “I’m calling this a coastal legacy. It’s in its original form – pastoral land running to the coast and that gorgeous bay.
“To get that seclusion and privacy on the island, most people have to travel 40 minutes to the other end, but this is three minutes from the ferry.”
She added: “It doesn’t matter if they’re an $11m buyer or a $15m buyer, people will look at it and go, ‘That’s all I want’.”
The farm, currently running alpacas, is just around the corner from the Matiatia Ferry terminal. Photo / Supplied
The 1930s farmhouse, originally barged to the island in the late 1960s, has been upgraded over the years. Photo / Supplied
The 4.4ha block, which boasts an inviting four-bedroom farmhouse overlooking the Hauraki Gulf, has an RV of $11.9m.
Owner Paul Chisholm told OneRoof that he bought it after moving to Waiheke from Wellington with a group of friends. “Friends had visited here and loved it, so we ended up coming up here to see what it was like and ended up buying a property,” he said.
“It was an hour and a half by ferry from the city. This place was just the house and the land, kind of overgrown and unkempt. It was unused farmland that had been carved off into smaller blocks in the late 1960s.
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“While the rest of Waiheke has got more and more populated, with more and more cars and people, our little corner is still as quiet as it was back in the 1970s.”
Chisholm started the first veterinary clinic on the island, living there with his first partner and two children and occasionally going back to the mainland to do locums at city-side practices.
His current partner, Chris, admits that when she met Paul a few years later, she took some persuading to move to the island and insisted that the couple also keep a house in the city.
Steps from the property lead down to the golden sands of W Bay. Photo / Supplied
The four-bedroom farmhouse has been updated with a modern kitchen and double glazing. Photo / Supplied
“We had interesting neighbours, but it was so isolated. There wasn’t a supermarket, but maybe half a dozen little Four Square shops spread around the island. A farmer friend gave us meat.
“But then as we could afford more time, we’d come over for longer and longer.”
After 46 years, Chris has come to love island life as much as Paul, commuting between the city and island for some years before permanently settling. They began farming alpacas in the late 1990s, breeding animals to sell to other farmers on the island. They still sell a bit of wool from the 16 animals they have left, and, like many on the island, now also grow enough olive trees to bottle oil for friends and family.
Chris said that they call their home “the house that grew”. It now has double glazing, French doors that open onto wide verandahs, a modern kitchen, and modern bathrooms. The couple also set up a studio for guests, named the “Goat House” after its pre-renovation tenants.
“The original owners chose the best spot for the house. We have steps down to a nice little protected sandy beach,” Chris said.
“Our kids and now our grandkids have fossicked through the rock pools and walked around the beaches. We can get kayaks and small dinghies down to the water to go kayaking around the bay or do a bit of fishing.”
The couple said that their three kids and four grandchildren come and go through the summer. “It is a little touch of heaven,” Chris said. “We are going to find it very hard to leave the lifestyle we have had here.”
Paul said that the farm work had become too much for the couple, so now felt like the time to sell. “The whole family will miss it. It has been a huge part of their lives,” he said.
Milne said the property was magical. “I feel like it has real heart when I walk across it. It is unpretentious, but it is absolute waterfront.”
Her marketing points out that the property has further building sites, giving new owners a chance to build the sort of statement architecture Waiheke has become known for.
“This is a rare Waiheke waterfront estate – a place to create a legacy, and a privilege to own,” she said.
– 54 Korora Road, Oneroa, Waiheke Island, is for sale, tender closing November 12