- A 64sqm two-bedroom crib in Moeraki sold for over $160,000 after high interest.
- The new owners, a fishing-loving family, gained approval from Te Rūnanga o Moeraki.
- The property, linked to Kerri Hulme's "The Bone People," has a one-year lease remaining.
A 64sqm two-bedroom crib in Moeraki sold for over $160,000 after high interest.
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The new owners, a fishing-loving family, gained approval from Te Rūnanga o Moeraki.
The property, linked to Kerri Hulme's "The Bone People," has a one-year lease remaining.
A tiny waterfront crib in author Kerri Hulme’s old stomping ground has been snapped up within three weeks of hitting the market, with the new owners winning the approval of the local landholders, Te Rūnanga o Moeraki.
The 64sqm two-bedroom leasehold property on Kaika Road, in the Otago fishing village of Moeraki, attracted huge interest after it was listed for sale for $160,000 at the end of April.
Property Brokers agent Amanda Watt told OneRoof that she received multiple offers, but the winning one came in over the asking price. She said enquiries started pouring in after OneRoof published a news profile of the crib.
The buyers paid over the $160,000 asking price for the Kaika Road property and got the approval of the landholders. Photo / Supplied
The crib looks out to the ocean. Photo / Supplied
“[We had] lots of interest from all sorts of people. The family that's coming in love fishing and they've had cribs and coastal properties before. They bought it for [the dad's] 40th birthday, which made it really special for them.
“They have young teenage children. [The mum] is into her dahlia gardening. She's planning on planting some dahlias all around it.
“They're just the perfect [buyers]. They are just full of enthusiasm and positivity, and they met the neighbours when they first arrived and hit it off, which was a biggie. You need to fit into [our] wee community.”
The buyers also needed to secure the rūnanga's approval to take over the lease, and rūnanga meetings are held only every few months, Watt said. As it transpired, the couple submitted their offer on the Friday and the next rūnanga meeting was on the Monday. “It all lined up perfectly. They wrote a lovely letter and explained why they thought they'd fit in and what they loved about Moeraki.”
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Currently, there is about one year left of the three-year lease with a right of renewal in April 2027. Watt said some potential buyers were concerned about the short lease, but others took it in their stride. "We did get the sceptics who were put off when they realised that there is a bit of a risk involved. But on the other hand, we had people who were prepared to take the risk. They absolutely loved it and were more than happy to pay that price. There was another [crib] for sale beside it - not full waterfrontage - and it's now sold as well.”
The property is in one of two kaik [Ngāi Tahu dialect for kāinga/village] in Moeraki, near the urupā, that sit on land owned by Te Rūnanga o Moeraki.
It’s the same tiny community that Hulme used as a backdrop for her Booker Prize-winning novel The Bone People. The tiny community has both biographical and literary connections to the author, who died four years ago, aged 74.
Moeraki's most famous resident, Kerri Hulme, at the Writers Festival in Auckland in 2014. She died in December 2021. Photo / Marcel Tromp
Seals are a common sight in Moeraki. Photo / Getty Images
Hulme and her family spent holidays in Moeraki, on the Otago coast, and she later identified it as a deeply formative place in her life – her “turangawaewae-ngakau” (the standing place of my heart).
The author lived in Moeraki for periods in the 1980s while writing The Bone People, and she set parts of that novel in a thinly disguised version of the area, called “Moerangi”. Hulme frequently referenced Moeraki in her work, particularly in her poetry.
One thing Watt expects Hulme would have seen a lot of all those decades ago is seals. They abound even today.
Watt told OneRoof last month that she got quite the surprise when she first viewed the Kaika Road and came face to face with a seal. “The first day we went there, we stepped down onto the beach, and there was this massive seal just lazing around right there, right at the bottom of the steps, and then when we left, we drove around,” she said.
“It’s a lovely, sleepy little village. There’s no traffic or noise or anything - just seals. They come up off the beach and just sunbathe all over the lawns.”
- Click here to find more properties for sale in Moeraki
