Big City Beach Life

When Scott and Mary Gilmour relocated their family from Portland, Oregon to Auckland in 1997, their American friends simply couldn't fathom that Scott's daily commute from home to work comprised a ten-minute walk along the beach to his office in Takapuna.

"They shook their heads in disbelief at that," laughs Scott, who now works from a home office where his main daily distraction is the ever-changing seascape out the window. As a director, mentor and angel investor for a number of Kiwi technology companies and the founder of a New Zealand chapter of the US-initiated educational non-profit 'I Have a Dream' Charitable Trust, Scott is a busy man. But he's the first to admit that the unparalleled setting of his seaside home midway along Takapuna Beach on Auckland's North Shore energises him and has been the foundation for a great family life.

Originally from Invercargill, Scott found his way to Oregon where he completed his MBA and joined IT multi-national Intel. However, after living in the States for 15 years, this Kiwi-at-heart boy wanted to return to his roots to give his children a taste of the New Zealand lifestyle. Convincing Intel to set up a New Zealand head office was one thing (they agreed); convincing his American wife, Mary, to move here to live was another.

"I had to 'sell' Mary on the idea, so we came out on a house-hunting trip basing ourselves beside the sea at the Takapuna Beach Motel. We walked along the beach each day, found a little Catholic primary school St Josephs which would be perfect for the kids and generally got seduced by the area," Scott recalls. "The problem was trying to find a large home that meshed with Mary's American heritage - US homes are huge - and that would be suitable for our four children to grow up in. We ended up renting a place on Takapuna Beach and three years later bought the property three doors away which we totally revamped to fit our wish list."

The eight-bedroom residence the Gilmours have created around the bones of a 1930s' original Takapuna beach house has fulfilled their vision of the perfect waterfront home. There's a parents' retreat, a whole floor for the children, a guest wing, chill-out rooms and generous communal areas - all benefitting from an ocean outlook and capitalising on the beach vibe. And they're lucky enough to have one of the few boatsheds along this stretch of the beach so the kids could haul the RIB (rigid inflatable boat) out of the boatshed, down the ramp and head out to sea.

"Living on the waterfront is special. You look out the window or stand on the deck and it's like watching a living painting," says Scott. "I thought I might tire of the view but it changes every day as the wind and waves shape the beach. I even love it on a stormy day". "Then there are always people fishing, yachts racing, kayakers, cruise ships going by and Rangitoto is right there in front of us."

He swims one kilometre along the beach twice a week for four or five months of the year and walking tracks don't come much better than Takapuna Beach which is part of a 23 kilometre trail along North Shore's beaches, from Long Bay to Devonport. Also a short stroll away are the cafés, restaurants, galleries, shops and the commercial amenities of downtown Takapuna.
 

As a youngster, Scott and Mary's oldest son, Mark, joined the Narrow Neck Sailing Club and they recall helping him rig his own boat and then standing arm in arm watching him sail off from in front of the house and around the point in his Starling. "It was a bit of a poignant parent-child moment," they laugh.

The family life that the Gilmours could offer their children on the waterfront in New Zealand was worlds away from that in Portland, Oregon where they were 60 miles from the coast. "The kids have water-skied and fished right out in front of this property and my son and his mates once took the inflatable round Rangitoto and Motutapu for the weekend. Another time they put the RIB on the ferry and headed off to Great Barrier Island to explore. It's been fun times and there's been a sense of freedom and adventure," says Scott.

"This house has also been quite a social hub. It's been a safe place for us to host beach parties for the children and their friends, where they can do their own thing yet be in a supervised setting. Many weekends we've woken up, looked down on to the boatshed deck and seen a row of sleeping bags indicating a good time was had by all!"

With three of their four children now living in the South Island, Scott and Mary are selling up the Takapuna beach house to live lakeside in Wanaka, Central Otago. "We've kind of come full circle - both Wanaka and Oregon lie on the 45th parallel and now our view will include mountains and forests again. We'll still be living by the waterfront but I guess the lake will be less changeable than the sea we've grown so used to looking at." Jody Robb

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