Light footed |
|
Imagine leaving your home in the bustle of Miami, Florida, and buying a piece of land within three days of arriving in New Zealand. And now imagine lying back in a spa pool on that land, under the stars, exulting in the silence of your 6.5 hectares, just a 25-minute drive from Wellington’s CBD. That’s the reality for Cuban-born Margarita Owen and her husband Mark.
“We have everything here,” says Margarita. And they do. They wanted a house that looked like a bird taking off from the hilltop, and it does. They also have two boatsheds down at Camborne Walkway from where they can kayak in the Pauatahanui Inlet. “We see seals, penguins, stingrays. Did you know the inlet is a breeding ground for sea horses?”
The area is a little closer to home turf for Mark. He grew up in the Wellington suburb of Seatoun, left at 19 to work on the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea and met Margarita. After living for seven years in Miami where their three daughters, Carly, 14, Stefania, 11, and Lolo, eight, were born, Mark managed to persuade the family to move to New Zealand. He was a little concerned though: how was Margarita, a Cuban dance teacher with a huge collection of high-heeled shoes, going to adapt to our much more casual lifestyle?
He needn’t have worried. Margarita loves her 360-degree views of rolling hills. “From high heels to gumboots,” he jokes now.
She also loves the friendliness of the neighbours and the drama and film opportunities the girls have had. Carly features in the 2006 fantasy/adventure movie Bridge to Terabithia and Stefania has a speaking part in Peter Jackson’s film The Lovely Bones, due to premiere in Wellington in December. Margarita and Mark have even been extras themselves in James Cameron’s 3-D epic Avatar. Lolo is staying out of the limelight at the moment, enjoying the new chickens, two cats and a dog.
Another opportunity the couple say they probably wouldn’t have had in Miami was building their own home – something they’d both dreamed about. They needed a large house because of the huge artworks and the large pieces of furniture – including a grand piano – they brought with them. They laugh when they recall the day two containers arrived outside the tiny Pukerua Bay cottage they were living in when they first arrived. “The neighbours watched while we unloaded all this stuff. They must have wondered where we were going to put it all!”
 Other “must-haves” included a dance studio, music room and movie theatre, as well as five bedrooms with en suites and a guest house for visitors. Mark and Margarita decided on a Lockwood design which features industrial steel rather than wooden framing. Pete Bossley Architects had made the concept drawings for Lockwood and this became the basic structure; the Owens then hired a draughtsman to personalise the design, which he did, specifying polished concrete floors and ceiling-height windows on the north side.
The pair have chosen neutral colours for the walls to showcase their bright paintings. Margarita even designed the concrete block wall in the entranceway specifically to hang a work by a Colombian artist that she bought in Miami.
Their collection also features many works by Brazilian painter Ferjo and two by the blind American painter Lisa Fittipaldi.
This is a house that reflects the warm, open personalities of its owners, with the spacious kitchen and dining room at its centre. Mark is a fine cook and the couple occasionally open up their home for private catered functions. They agree there is usually someone sitting at the bar.
“This is where everyone hangs,” says Mark. “It is always open home. Family often visit from Miami. Our nieces and nephews all want to move here now.” You can see the kids in the pool from the dining table or from the long kitchen bench, says Mark. “We can be having a dinner party and the kids can be splashing around out there. The pool lights up at night.”
The mirror-clad dance studio can be a serious place for lessons but it’s also where the children watch TV and get creative using the contents of the dress-up box. Even the loo is fun. Photographs of the family line the walls: there are shots of the children growing up and one of the Owens with the Bee Gees, another of Margarita and Al Pacino on a plane.
The movie theatre, with its large sofas and big screen, is also a popular place for the family to gather to watch one of hundreds of films. In the dressing room, Margarita, a self-confessed shoe freak, organises her footwear by colour in roll-out drawers. “It’s a big house,” she says, “but I need a bigger closet.”
Across the garden, a separate self-contained two-bedroom guest house shares the same stunning rural views, with an outside bath on the deck. Past that is a walk beside a valley that Mark is replanting with natives, which leads to a lake he has created. “We have cockatoos flying around and paradise ducks have already settled in beside the lake.”
Story: Janice Marriott
Photographs: Tessa Chrisp
| 
|
| 
