Lynley Woods has lived next door to the spiritual home of rugby in Waikato her entire life. She’s 86.
She arrived at 422 Tristram Street as a baby, and she’s never left.
Her forever home is now the only freestanding residential character home next to FMG Stadium Waikato, formerly Rugby Park.
Over the years, neighbouring homes have been pulled down and replaced with townhouses.
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She’s had several developers at her door, asking if she’ll sell. The answer has always been no. “They know better,” she said. “It’s my home. Every memory I have is in this house of people.”
Her parents bought the property in 1938 and moved in as newlyweds. Back then, Tristram Street was classed as city fringe and affordable. They paid 850 pounds for the house ($1700) and 21 pounds a year in ground rent.
Woods loved growing up on the street and can remember a time when council workers turned up to work on horses and neighbourhood kids used to climb over the trees at Rugby Park.
The All Blacks at FMG Stadium in 2019. Photo / Dean Purcell
The bungalow is directly across from Waikato Stadium on Tristram Street, which is often closed during rugby games. Photo / Supplied
Multi-level townhouses flank the original 1930s home. Photo / Supplied
Her horse-racing mad dad would occasionally take her to a rugby game – but she can’t say she’s ever been a big supporter.
She made her first friend on the street when she was just two years old. They have remained besties ever since. “We don’t remember life without each other ever; no memory of not being together.”
Woods has never had to travel far from her house. As a kid, she attended nearby Whitiora primary and Hamilton High School (now Hamilton Girls High School). She was 16 years old when she landed her first and only job at the Post Office Savings Bank on Victoria Street, just a short bike ride away.
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And while her bank colleagues were moving out of town for promotions, Woods wouldn’t even consider it. “My parents could not boot me out of home.”
She eventually landed a supervisor role in her much-loved home city, becoming the first woman to hold the role in Hamilton.
Even after her mother died in 1970, Woods continued to live at Tristram Street with her father, who gifted her the house before he died.
After all those years of saying no, she is selling up now because she is moving to a retirement village. “Just because physically, I can’t cope. No other reason ... I haven’t got family living close to rely on or expect them, and all my cousins are similar age to me.”
Developers would have to plan around the protected 17m tall totara tree that sits on the rear corner of the 756sqm section. Photo / Supplied
Woods is hoping the three-bedroom, one-bathroom character home goes to another family, but so far all the interest has been from developers.
Harcourts agent Tony Kerapa, who is marketing the property with colleague Sharon Thomas, said the freehold 756sqm site was zoned for high-density housing.
Potential buyers are looking at land-banking the site and developing it later.
The property has an RV of $1.6m, but Kerapa said it was hard to say what it would sell for on auction day. It’s only worth what people are prepared to pay for it and what they can do with it, he added.
The 17m high totara tree in the back corner of the garden is listed as one of the city’s protected notable trees and cannot be cut down, trimmed, or damaged without formal council consent.
- 422 Tristram Street, in Whitiora, Hamilton, goes to auction on August 6
