Dateline January 26, 2015, Panorama Heights, Western Auckland
Leaving Gulf Harbour, we made our way to Panorama Heights, our bed and breakfast for the evening, high up in the Waitakere Range in West Auckland. It was about an hour's drive, and we arrived a little after 6:30 to be greeted by our hosts, Allison and Paul.
They had been running Panorama Heights for sixteen years as their primary business. The B&B itself is the upper of two houses on the property, an older home built by an English couple in the 1950s, perched high on the hillside with the best of the view. Paul and Allison had bought the lot just below years earlier and built their own home there, with Paul doing most of the work himself. When the upper house came up for sale, they bought that too, and Paul slowly reconfigured it over the years, first as a guest home for family and friends, and then as the B&B as it stands today.
The house sleeps eight. Since we were the only ones there, the entire place was ours. We dropped our bags and stepped out onto the porch.
The view is as good as it gets. You look out over downtown Auckland with the bay and the Harbour Bridge in front of you, and as the sun goes down and the city lights come up, the whole scene keeps shifting. We stood there a while.
Allison and Paul got us settled in. We had no dinner plans, so John and Pete drove into town and brought back a few simple things for the four of us. We did not know it at the time, but with twenty-four hours' notice, Allison and Paul would have made dinner for us. Good to know for a future stay.
We had a lovely evening with a few drinks and good conversation, then off to bed.
Breakfast and a history lesson.
In the morning, Allison and Paul served a country breakfast we will remember for some time: home-baked rolls and bread, eggs, bacon, fresh fruit, and more. What we enjoyed most was that they sat down and ate with us, sharing our backgrounds and the family stories you only really tell at a table.
Over breakfast Paul filled us in on the history of the area. Most of the surrounding land is preserve owned by the City of Auckland. As you can see from the property, the house is perched on top of a very steep cliff. Back in the mid-1800s, immigrants were offered the land for free if they would help clear the kauri trees that populated it. After the land was granted, the immigrants approached the government, saying they could not farm it and felt cheated. The Auckland government bought the land back and created the preserve, which sits in its native state today and cannot be developed.
The mystery word.
Then Paul leaned back and asked us if we knew what a panel beater was.
It became a funny guessing game. With his hints we finally figured out it was the Kiwi term for an auto body repair person. That was the lead-in to Paul's own story: he had run his own auto body shop for years before selling it to open the B&B.
He took us outside to show us his cars. First, the bright red Jaguar F-Type, brand new.
And then the 1967 Jaguar E-Type, fully restored by the resident panel beater himself.
It was time to head out for our next golf adventure at Wairakei. We bid a fond farewell to Allison and Paul.
