Matuku Moana
2024 Here Magazine Awards - Shortlist
2025 Feature in Here Magazine - Issue #29
2025 Interior Awards Finalist - Residential Category
2025 Shortlist Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architect’s Local Award in the Waikato & Bay of Plenty regions
Photographer—David Straight
Matuku moana is our own home and we are really proud of it.
We purchased the section in 2019 off our new neighbours. They had subdivided the Lot from their large ‘old world’ Papamoa property. A property where they had hand raised a Motuku moana in their wood shed after it blew out of a Macrocarpa tree in a storm. The parents would fly down daily and feed their chick in the woodshed. We are fortunate to still see the birds as they fly back and forth from their nests. It feels special in the urban sprawl of Papamoa.
Outside the house is bold. It’s simplistic with fine detail.
Inside the house has two feels.
Downstairs is light and playful. Upstairs is moody and textured.
We love our house.
“Propped off the ground and subtly overhanging its concrete foundation, it sits as an object on the land, strong and content.”
— Here magazine
“Bold, yet meticulously detailed.”
— Here magazine
“The interior is soft, colourful and playful”
— Here magazine
“Art, second-hand finds and decades of collected treasures complete the picture”
— Here magazine
“It’s a cleaver colour scheme: colourful, but not poppy”
— Here magazine
“Spread over two levels, with public spaces downstairs and the sleeping quarters and office upstairs, the home has a clear split - a light, playful feel downstairs, with a moody, textured retreat above”
— Here magazine
“The calm and private retreat”
— Here magazine
