When it hit the market last week, a smartly renovated five-bedroom house in Auckland’s Greenlane was billed as “Fit for a Queen”.
The agents were not exaggerating.
The 1930s Arts and Crafts-style home at 14 Maungakiekie Avenue did, in fact, receive a fleeting visit from Queen Elizabeth II during her coronation tour of New Zealand in 1953.
The late Queen’s first tour of New Zealand with the Duke of Edinburgh was overshadowed by the Tangiwai rail disaster, in which 151 people died when the Wellington-to-Auckland express plunged into the Whangaehu River on Christmas Eve. Many of those on board had been travelling north to catch a glimpse of the royal couple.
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While attending engagements at nearby Ellerslie Racecourse, the Queen learned that three Tangiwai survivors were staying at the Maungakiekie Avenue house and instructed her entourage to make an unscheduled visit to pay her respects.
The visit was significant enough to make the front page of the Auckland Star.
“The royal visitors were in the house several minutes,” the story said.
The Queen at Ellerslie Racecourse, just before she made her visit to 14 Maungakiekie Avenue. Photo / Getty Images
The framed front page of the Auckland Star that reported on the Queen’s visit. Photo / Fiona Goodall
The Queen records her Christmas broadcast for 1953 in Auckland Town Hall. Photo / Getty Images
The late Queen with Catherine, then Duchess of Cambridge, now Princess of Wales, during a Diamond Jubilee visit to Nottingham in 2012. Photo / Getty Images
The paper published a photograph taken by neighbour Fred Blenkhorn and reported that “dozens of people flocked around the entourage as it was leaving”.
“Some people were in their gardening clothes,” it went on.
The horror.
Looking back, it’s easy to understand the excitement that swept through the neighbourhood. Photographs from the tour show streets packed with well-wishers desperate for a glimpse of the young monarch and her husband. That weekend alone, the Auckland Star reported that 5000 people gathered outside Government House, while another 1000 headed to the yacht club after hearing the Duke of Edinburgh planned to go sailing.
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The newspaper breathlessly chronicled every moment of the royal visit: the 2000 people who attended a screening at the St James Theatre, the 40,000 who turned out for a fireworks display at Western Springs, details from the royal couple’s Sunday church service, descriptions of the Queen’s outfits and even an account of the Duke’s sailing attire, which included “blue shorts, no shirt, sunglasses, shoes and stockings”, along with “a snack of cakes and scones at one stage of the voyage”.
Today, a framed copy of that front page, a faded clipping of the original photograph and a letter from the daughter of the home’s first owner are passed from one owner of the Maungakiekie Avenue house to the next, preserving the unlikely story of the day royalty arrived at the front door.
Owners Cheryl and Andres Katz-Rae love the royal connection. Cheryl has even added to the memorabilia with vintage finds of her own: a bound picture book of the entire Australia-New Zealand tour, a souvenir map and card featuring the then Prince Charles and the late Duke of Edinburgh.
“Even if people are not royalists, people are quite fascinated by the story,” Cheryl told OneRoof.
Some of the royal memorabilia collected at 14 Maungakiekie Avenue. Photo / Fiona Goodall
Pictures of the Duke of Edinburgh and Prince Charles feature in the collection. Photo / Fiona Goodall
The house looks the same from the outside, but inside has been completely transformed. Photo / Supplied
The front parlour is certainly fit for a Queen. Photo / Supplied
OneRoof made sure we were photographed at the same porch as Her Majesty – minus the gloves and a smart feathered cap – and the Katz-Raes kindly provided a pretty vintage cup and saucer so we could pretend to take tea with Her Maj.
But their thorough renovations over the 16 years they’ve owned the house mean we had to use our imaginations to picture the scene in that 1950s front parlour or dining room and the gaggle of thrilled neighbours who couldn’t believe what they were seeing.
The Katz-Raes gave the garden a makeover too, with gravel and brick walks, espaliered fruit trees and immaculately groomed lawns that could easily have hosted a royal garden party.
Their children’s ground-floor studio has now been converted to a well-used Airbnb, making the most of the house’s proximity to the hospitals, racecourse and exhibition centre. Cheryl has commandeered the garage for an immaculately organised craft space where she teaches quilting, while Andres’ study houses the royal memorabilia.
Ray White agent Dean Tuffley, who is marketing the property with Ani Hirini, says that the English-style house amid the bungalows still has a gorgeous street presence, while its royal ties make it “very unique and special”.
“The more you go through the home, the better it gets,” he said.
- 14 Maungakiekie Avenue, Greenlane, Auckland, goes to auction November 18
