Harry the House’s intrepid tale for sale

JULIA WADE

20 Dec, 2021

Watching whole houses teetering on trucks as they travel to new locations is an incredible sight, the logistics and engineering required quite mind-boggling to most.

An even more remarkable sight to witness however, is a house cruising the waters of Mangawhai’s coastline, an extraordinary event which actually occurred over 24 years ago and has now been illustrated in a new children’s book ‘Harry the House Goes Surfing’ by local writer, Adrienne Joyce.

“It’s a picture book telling the true story of Harry's hair-raising journey from St Heliers Auckland, 96 kilometres up the coast on a barge to Mangawhai,” Adrienne says, who was Harry’s former owner. “Harry really did go surfing!”

Shipping Harry up the east coast to his new Mangawhai Heads home on a Lincoln Street waterfront property, where Adrienne and husband Lionel had bought 15 acres around 40 years ago, was a major event unfolding over three weeks in November 1997. The venture involved a two week stay at Kawau Island due to unsuitable weather, a leaky barge and getting stuck in sand with willing locals coming to the rescue.

“After arriving in Mangawhai’s estuary, Harry got stuck on a sand bar and the next day locals brought their boats out to speed around him to rock the barge so the tugboat could tow him off,” Adrienne says. “Then the tow truck got stuck in the sand and Harry had to be taken off the trailer and put onto wooden piles in the estuary where he stayed overnight, surviving incoming and outgoing tides. It was a very challenging exercise but we did it.”

Over the years Adrienne and Lionel sold most of their 15 acres besides ‘a good area on the waterfront’ and although they are no longer Harry’s owners, they are his neighbours, eventually building a beach house right next door to the iconic house.

“The family who own Harry now have just finished a big maintenance project and he is looking quite grand,” she says. “The family have two young boys who think Harry is so special and so clever to have been sailing and surfing.”

Harry’s adventure is remembered by many locals Adrienne says, a slice of personal Mangawhai history the first-time author and self-publisher wanted to share with local families.

“I thought the book might make a great Christmas present for youngsters and, after reading the latest issue of Mangawhai Focus, I wanted to support the great presence the museum is establishing in our community, so have given them the sole marketing of my book.”

Mangawhai Museum manager Emma McDermott says when Adrienne, a Friend of the Museum, offered the facility the exclusive rights to sell for the Mangawhai region, ‘we jumped at it’.

“We are so lucky that Adrienne has shared Harry’s story with the Mangawhai community through such a fun and colourful book. We also use this delightful story in our school holiday programme and it has proven very popular as a gift for local families,” she says. “So many people have memories of Harry coming to Mangawhai and the comments and feedback are always great… it’s just a wonderful local story!”

“Harry had to be taken off the trailer and put onto wooden piles in the estuary where he stayed overnight, surviving incoming and outgoing tides.”

Harry the House during his perilous journey from Auckland to Mangawhai, and as he stands today, at home on solid ground in Lincoln Street. PHOTOS/SUPPLIED