Original subtitles

- I'm on a hunt to help find everyday Kiwis their perfect country house.

Things are a little different out here in the country.

You still have the hustle and bustle.

Your neighbours can sometimes be a bit noisy.

Time moves a little slower.

But you don't get this...

in the city.

Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air.

www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2024

Gary and Amanda have been Beach Hop enthusiasts for well over two decades,

and that's a huge part of the reason that they're making the move to Whangamata.

It's one of the most popular beach holiday spots in Aotearoa,

and they know they're gonna have heaps of family and friends wanting to come visit.

That means they're looking for a place big enough for everyone to crash,

and a pool would be the icing on the cake.

Let's go house-hunt.

Today's house hunt is with Gary and Amanda,

two frequent visitors of Whangamata now looking to call it home.

- With all the modern aluminium joinery, and I guess it's all double-glazed ― looks like it ―

very low maintenance, which is good. I don't like maintenance.

- And with 12 grandkids between them, they're looking for a new place with plenty of space.

I think this could be a house that would work really well for you

and your extended family as well when they come to visit.

- Yep. - Exactly.

- So come along as I show this couple three incredible properties that I found just for them.

- Hi, I'm Gary. This is my wife, Amanda.

We've had a small holiday place here for six years.

It's a one-bedroom unit in the old Whangamata motel.

- We don't like having to pack up and go home on a Sunday,

so we really want to move here permanently.

The main drawcard for Whangamata is definitely the beautiful beach.

- We love the sun, we love the beach, we love swimming.

And my new dog that I have, my hunting dog,

she's loving the beach when she comes over to where we are currently.

We have decided to come a bit earlier than what the plan was.

I'd always said when I turn 65, we wouldn't be living where we were on the lifestyle block.

But earlier this year, a very close friend of ours passed away right before his 65th birthday,

and I said to Amanda, I said, 'That plan of moving here when I'm 65? New plan.'

I said, 'We're gone before Christmas.' So we sold up our place just recently,

and, yeah, we're looking to buy here now.

We've been coming to Beach Hop for 20-odd years, and we have a car.

Our daughters started coming three years ago and have loved it and embraced it so much.

We haven't been able to have them staying at our place because we only had a one-bedroom unit.

So we're looking for something where when family says,

'Can we come to the beach?', we go, 'Welcome, come, bring everybody.'

Our budget, we do have a maximum, and it's kind of up around that 1.1. It's as far as we can go.

- Touted as one of New Zealand's most popular destinations for a summer escape,

Whangamata is beautifully unique.

With its blend of pristine sandy beaches and stunning native forests,

it's no wonder our couple have decided to make this town their new home.

The first property I've brought our couple to is a fairly new build,

and its stunning appearance is only rivalled by its breathtaking location.

Kia ora, Amanda. - Hi. - How are you going?

And Gary. - Hi, Matt. Nice to meet you.

- So great to meet you two. I've gotta say thank you so much for choosing to move to Whangamata.

It means I get to spend some time in this beautiful place. - You're welcome.

- So what was it about Whangamata that you guys love?

- Well, I started coming here probably in the mid-'70s,

mates and I cruising around in our VWs and surfboards on the roof.

- No surf here, we'd shoot down to Waihi.

If there was no surf on this coast, we'd shoot over to Raglan. - Amazing.

Now, you've known each other 30 years. - Yes.

- Married for 10 years? - Yes.

- Gary, what took you so long, mate? What's going on?

Oh, you gotta be sure to be sure.

You don't wanna make any mistakes.

- Let's talk about the house that I bought you to first.

It's a beautiful house, only built a couple of years ago.

Good flow in here, three bedrooms. Obviously, the location is fantastic,

views of the estuary. I mean, look where we are. It's stunning.

It was gonna be a forever home for the couple that built it, but things changed.

A couple more kids came along, and they decided they needed some more room.

Let's stop talking about it, let's start looking at it. Let's get inside.

- OK. Let's go. - Cool.

All right. Here we are.

- Never lived in a modern house like this before or something as new as this.

- I mean, it could work out really well for you two ― but it's got a really nice flow.

We came in through here, through this extra living space,

but it flows nicely through to this spacious living area,

modern kitchen, everything you could possibly need in a brand-new kitchen.

It's not a huge house, this one, not a massive space, so does that worry you at all?

Would you need more room, do you think, for the family when they come to visit?

- As long as it had three bedrooms... - Mm-hm

- ...it's enough for a family to come and stay with you.

- All right, let's head down to that lounge area.

You can see already that view is absolutely beautiful.

The main story of the lounge is how much it just flows to that deck.

Those big bifold doors open right up, and even though it's not a huge space, it feels bigger, Ithink.

- I like the view out through there.

It reminds me of a place I hunted down South Westland a few years back,

looked out over a bit of an estuary and the trees, stags roaring out there.

- It's a really beautiful location, beautiful view.

That's the main bedroom right there, so I'll let you guys have a look in there,

and we'll catch you up in a minute. - OK. Thank you. - Thank you.

- This is a good-sized room.

Imagine waking up here in the morning with a view like that.

What do you think about the other bedrooms?

- The bedrooms are good sizes for children, and especially having

that other little room, either as a playroom or an office,

and the bathroom's a very good-sized bathroom. - A bit too flash for this fella.

What sort of money do you think they'd have on this?

- Um... - It'd be over a million.

- Definitely over a million. - Everything's over a million in Whangamata.

- Maybe 1.1? - It's gotta be somewhere around that, 1.1, 1 and a bit.

- I mean, look at that. How good's this view?

You reckon there's any stags over there, Gary?

- I'll tell you what ―

there's deer everywhere. - You reckon? - Everywhere.

And it would not surprise me if there was a deer or two over in there.

- So how do you flush them out? What's the technique?

- Wait for the roar and wait for them to start talking. OK.

- When they start talking, you start talking back.

- Yeah? Can I get a bit of a demo of this roar?

- I'll give you a little try. - It won't be very good.

This is basically a roar.

Wow!

I'm blown away. Gary, that's a talent. - Yeah.

- You are a man with a talent.

Well, let's talk about the price.

Have you got an idea of what you think it would be on the market for?

- Everything in Whangamata is over a million.

- Yeah, I'd say 1.1, eh. - Yeah, I'd say, yeah, about that. Yep.

- I'd say you're on the money.

Just under budget, so we're on the right track.

Well, that's just the first house of three today.

So, two more options. Should we hit the road? - Yep.

- Come on then. - Let's go.

- Coming up ― a house with ties to a New Zealand legend.

And later, I learn more about Whangamata's Beach Hop.

- I'm in Whangamata seeking the perfect upgrade for Gary and Amanda from their quaint beachhut.

The first property was a spectacle, but brace yourself,

because this second house holds quite the merit of its own.

All righty. House number two,

really interesting option, this one. There's a lot to like about this property.

- Until you actually get down there, you start walking down the drive and you think, 'Where are we going?

'What's down here?' And then it kind of opens out.

- You would have noticed a little cabin that we walked past,

used as an outdoor office at the moment.

The house itself was built in the late '80s.

A local architect actually built it for his parents, one of whom, his father,

ex-All Black Bob Scott. Do you remember Bob Scott, the fullback?

- He could kick goals from halfway in his bare feet, I believe.

- That's the one ― absolute legend.

Good garage, as you've already noticed, to store all your gear.

Amanda, I know you were quite hoping for a pool. - I was.

- You've probably already spotted that. - Yes, I have spotted the pool.

- Absolutely gorgeous outdoor area, this one, and a big section as well.

It goes right down to the road, so there's a lower backyard

that we'll go and have a look at later on.

Well, I reckon we should get inside and have a look around this one.

- OK. - Great. - Let's do it.

All right. So, yeah, here we are,

bit larger than the first place we looked at.

It does have a kind of a beach house sort of style, doesn't it? - It does.

- Yeah. We― Our furnishings are a little bit different taste to this...

- Yep. - ...but I could see some of our furniture would make it our own.

- So, the Beach Hop, tell me a little bit more about the Beach Hop,

because you're really involved in it, aren't you?

- We've been entrants for about 13 years.

We bought our first car at the Beach Hop in 2009.

It's just a huge event that brings in so much money for the community,

for the surf club, the fire brigade, all the charities.

- And your daughters are involved as well, yeah?

- Yeah, probably for the last three years.

They do the dress-up very well.

Last year they did Sandy, Olivia Newton-John off...

The theme was Grease. - Oh yeah.

- Hey, well, this is just the lounge. Lots more to see, so let's move on.

- OK. - OK.

- So again, considering the house is built in '88, it's got a nice, modern kitchen.

They've done a great job bringing it up to a 2023 standard.

What do you think of the shape and the design of this kitchen, Amanda?

- It's very unusual, but I do like the big long bench here

and breakfast bar on the end. - Mm-hm.

- I like the flow out on to the deck. You're nice and close.

If people are out on the deck, you're still in touch with them. - Yeah, exactly.

I reckon it's time for me to head outside, leave you guys alone.

Have a good look around the place and come and find me.

- OK. - See you in a bit. Righty ho. - Thanks, Matt.

- Somebody likes black and white.

So, what sort of money do you reckon this is worth?

All I can do is judge it on the last one, if that last one was 1.1.

- Oh, you think more than the last one?

- Oh, I would say, gotta be somewhere 1.2, 1.3.

- I think the backyard of this place really makes such a difference.

Not only have you got that incredible pool area,

but you've also got this little grove down here, a little orchard, almost.

What do you think? - It's lovely.

- Having visited Whangamata for such a long time, you'll know this area pretty well.

This road, a little bit of road noise there,

but you were saying to me just before, that's actually a bit of a bonus for you, isn't it?

- During Beach Hop, one of the main events is Onemana, which is about 10 K's down the road,

and the thousands of Beach Hop cars drive past here in a convoy... - Right.

- ...and my cousin David owns a house just below the road here,

and they all come over, sit on their deck chairs, line the sides of the road.

- So you don't even have to leave home to take part in the parade.

So, big question ― what do you think it's worth?

- Judging by the last house,

although that last house was a new build, and you said that was 1.1... - Mm-hm.

- ...this has to be a couple hundy more than that.

- You're right. It looks like it should be worth that.

I'm gonna tell you it's almost 1 million, not quite.

Inquiries over $995,000 at the moment.

- Serious? - Wow. - Yeah.

- As far as the price went, we were very surprised.

I thought there's another couple of hundred thousand more value in this

with the pool and size of the house and everything else. - And having a garage

and the little cabin office, it's very reasonably priced.

- I've got one more option for you, so let's jump in the car, eh?

Coming up ― one of Whangamata's locals graces us with his knowledge of the Beach Hop.

And later, an interesting final option for our couple.

- My time in this town has been lovely, but I'm dying to know more about the Beach Hop,

so I've enlisted the help of one of Whangamata's locals to bring me up to speed.

Craig, is it a prerequisite to just love hotrods if you wanna live in Whangamata?

- Not a prerequisite, but it certainly does help.

- And the Hop, it's gotta be, I mean, the biggest event in town every single year, right?

- It's one of the biggest car festivals in the Southern Hemisphere.

It started out, there was a guy who was in Hastings...

and he saw these cars pulling up outside the Hastings Hall,

and people were getting out all dressed in rock and roll gear, and he asked them,

'What's going on?', you know, and they said, 'Oh, it's our hop.'

And so he came back here to Whangamata and said,

'How about we try and kick something like this off?'

That was really the start of it. The first year we nobbled Noddy.

Nobody knew Noddy, really. He had just moved to town,

but he was a car guy, so he got some of his mates.

- We were expecting 10 or 12 cars and we got about 40 the first time. - Yeah.

How many are you expecting in this one?

You never really know, because it sorta gets to the point

where you think, 'It can't get much bigger,'

- because we're only a little town, you know. - Yeah.

- Yeah, it's literally thousands.

- Craig, if you had one thing to say to people thinking about

coming to visit or moving to Whangamata, what would it be?

- Do it. - Yeah.

I mean, it is just an awesome place to live.

It's mad at Christmas, it's mad at Beach Hop.

The rest of the time, it's a lovely little town. The beaches are just awesome.

We got more clubs you can shake a fist at, you know.

- Yeah, it's just― just an awesome place to live.

- All right, let's get back to it, and show our Beach Hop regulars the final property

of today's country house-hunt.

Alrighty. Here we go, third and final house for the day.

Now, this one ― location, location, location, as they say.

We are right in the heart of Whangamata.

I mean, you'd be walking out of the house in your wetsuit, catching a wave in under 60 seconds.

- The location here is unbeatable ―

that close to town, that close to the beach. You couldn't get much better.

- Now, this one is a freehold townhouse, so you'd be part of a body corporate.

So, we're looking at a three-bedroom, two-bathroom townhouse split over three levels.

There's a large, sort of, a suite on the top floor, views out to the ocean as well.

I think this could be a really interesting one for you two.

Let's get inside and have a look around, eh?

- OK. Let's go. - Come on in.

All right, here we are.

So this level, second level, is the living space.

So downstairs, you've got two double bedrooms, a bathroom and a separate toilet.

On this floor, you've got your living area,

so lounge, where we are at the moment, flowing through to the dining and kitchen,

and decks either side of the property as well.

So how does the split-level living work for you with obviously

you know, a couple of bedrooms downstairs, living area on the middle floor

and the main bedroom upstairs? How would that work for you two?

- Family can be down there, and we can be up there.

- Yeah, exactly. - Meet in the middle.

- We weren't too sure about being three levels,

but I don't see that as being an issue; it may be in 10 years time.

- But to have the three levels, that's how you get your views.

If you're on a single level, you don't get the views.

- Hey, I'm gonna go check out that courtyard downstairs,

so feel free to wander around, have a nosey, and I'll see you in a bit. Cool.

- OK. - OK. Thanks, Matt.

- Wow, this is a nice room.

- I love that view off the small balcony there,

so I could come up here every morning, look out the window,

and if there's no surf, I just go straight back to bed.

- I love the downstairs, that courtyard. - I know, easy care.

- After 17 years of spending two hours a week mowing lawns... - Yes.

- ...and the worst I'd do down there is pull out a weed every now and then.

So price-wise, this is― I think this is way outside of our price range.

I mean, look where it is, look at the location.

Oh, I'd love this place, but I think it's...

I think it's out of the ballpark. - Yeah.

- Anyway... - OK. - ...we'll see.

- Kia ora. - Hi.

- So this is your private courtyard if you buy this place.

So the pool, that's a big bonus for you, isn't it?

- Definite drawcard. - Again, not seeing too many downsides to this property

from your point of view. What do you think the price might be, though?

- Now, there's― - Could that be the downside?

That's the downside.

- It's gotta be more than house number one,

and I'm thinking 1.3, and that might be too light.

- Well, we are pushing the budget ― just.

1.15 is the asking price for this place.

- Yes, we were both surprised when Matt did tell us what the price was. - Yes.

- I think we're gonna have to have a pretty serious talk about these three houses.

- Well, I can definitely see the cogs turning,

and you do have a lot to think about, so I'll let you go away,

and if one of these places ticks all the boxes, then let's get back together soon...

- Yep. - ...and we'll see how you went.

Well, I've certainly given Gary and Amanda a tough choice.

All three of these properties were a treat, but it's now over to them to decide which one is thewinner.

Well, some time has passed, and I'm back to the glorious coastline of Whangamata

to meet up again with Gary and Amanda and see what they ended up settling on.

Gary and Amanda, how are you going? - Gidday, Matt, how are you? - Good, thank you.

- So good to see you again. What a spot you've picked for me.

Where are we? What's this? - This is the Whangamata Ocean Sports Club.

They tout this as being the club with the million-dollar view.

- Yeah, I can see what they're talking about.

You guys have decided to go for one of the three houses that we looked at,

trying to figure out which one it might be. So the first place we looked at,

it was fairly new. It was only built around 2020, 2021, beautiful location on the estuary there.

So what did you like about that one? - I liked how it was and how easy-care it was, the house,

definitely a nice view out to the estuary. - Yeah, yeah.

And you were saying the view reminded you of some hunting spots?

- I'm damn sure I heard a stag roar across.

- I definitely heard something, anyway. Something was roaring. - Yeah.

- Second place we looked at,

Bob Scott's old house, the old ex-All Black's house. - Yes.

- It was so nicely presented. - Beautiful property,

had everything ― swimming pool... - Garaging and even that little cabin for an office.

- And you surprised me with the actual asking price.

- Yeah. It's a lot of house for $1 million.

- Yeah. - It was. - Yeah.

And then the third place we looked at ―

fantastic option for you guys in terms of the location, right in the heart of Whangamata.

- Location, location, location. - Location.

The view out to the bar and the view over the pool. - Love that place.

And yeah, the price was, I think we mentioned was getting up there. - Yes, it's not...

- Yeah, yeah. - We do have a finite reserve.

- You've got that cap there, mm-hm. - We do have that cap,

and there's just no way of going past that. - Right.

But one of them has taken your fancy, and we're gonna put an offer in, so...

one, two or three?

- Number three. - House number three!

The townhouse. - The townhouse.

- As soon as you walked in, I had a feeling about that one.

The location is a huge part of it, but it just― - Yeah.

- Something felt right about that for you two.

- It wasn't as beachy, probably, as the other two, with, you know, it's carpeted and that,

but it's the view to the bar and view out over to the hills

and... yeah. - Yeah.

- It's right up to the top of the budget, but I'm really hopeful that this is gonna work outfor you.

And hopefully the next time I see you, I'll be joining in at the Hop.

- If we― If we secure this place, you'll be welcome, mate. - If we secure it.

- A fantastic property our couple has chosen,

and what's even better is I've since heard that their offer on house number three has been accepted.

Great house-hunting, you guys, and I might even see you at next year's Hop.

Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air.

www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2024