– Wendyl Nissen and Paul Little sold their Northland waterfront property after listing it for $1.1m.
– They moved back to Auckland to be closer to their grandchildren, prioritising family time.
– The couple bought the property in 2013 for $600,000 and made numerous improvements over the years.
New Zealand’s Green Goddess Wendyl Nissen and her writer husband Paul Little have sold their waterfront Northland escape, OneRoof can reveal.
The pair listed their 2ha lifestyle block on Waione Road, in Opononi, on the Hokianga Harbour, late last year, having decided to move back to Auckland to be closer to their grandchildren.
The property, which had an asking price of $1.1 million, sold this week for an undisclosed sum.
Little told OneRoof that the couple were thrilled with the result.
“From the beginning, we said, ‘It’s not a place that will suit everyone, but when the right person comes along, they will be like we were. They will get it.'”
Nissen and Little bought the lifestyle block in Opononi in 2013 for $600,000. Photo / Supplied
Their creative corner looks out to the water. Photo / Supplied
He added: “It’s a place that made us all so happy, it’s been good for the kids and our whanau.”
Little said that he and Nissen had been so focused on the sale that they’d not paused to consider the impact of leaving their dream spot for good. “We’re starting to get just a tiny bit emotional,” he said.
“We’re so glad we got to live that life, and we’ve got buyers who feel very much as we do about the land. So that makes it so much better.”
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Little said that, fittingly, the last job for the writing pair is to put together a briefing book for the new owners, full of tips and advice for running the property, as well as their black book of local contacts to help the new owners feel truly settled in.
OneRoof interviewed Nissen and Little last year, when their home first hit the market. They talked about the joys and challenges of moving to the Far North.
“We were in Auckland at a big family function and the kids ganged up on us and said, ‘Actually, we do like you and like to see you’,” Little told OneRoof.
“So once we’d picked ourselves up off the floor, we started thinking about it and realised it was probably the right time.”
The house has a relaxed, natural vibe, reflecting the couple’s lives. Photo / Supplied
The beachfront property sits on 2.1ha. Photo / Supplied
Nissen added: “We’re both in our 60s. So it’s really important to be there for the grandchildren. I don’t want to miss out on that, our priority is being [in Auckland].”
The couple – who between them have edited the country’s biggest magazines including NZ Women’s Weekly, Woman’s Day, Cleo, Listener and Metro, written columns for the NZ Herald and published multiple books – bought the lifestyle block in 2013 for $600,000, sold their Grey Lynn house and moved to the country.
“We weren’t even expecting to move. We’d been up there once for a travel story and really liked it,” Little said.
“We had talked about living somewhere in the country and happened to see the ad for this place, and we went, ‘Oh my God, it’s got everything.’”
Nissen said the property ticked everything on their list: double-glazing, a west-facing outlook for Little to watch the sunsets, clear night skies for stargazing, a beach for Nissen, and the “eco stuff” of a full orchard and a vegetable garden.
At one point, the couple had 35 chickens and cattle (with Little dealing with the home kill).
“I love cows. They became my friends, and I would play with them basically,” Nissen said. She could bottle and pickle to her heart’s content.
The couple extended the decks, put in a concrete driveway, and added a tiny house for visiting family. “It was just a great place to have friends – a really good place to entertain. Everyone was swimming just down the front, and I used to do a lot of fishing as I had a boat. I always caught fish, always,” Nissen said.
– Click here to find more properties for sale in the Far North