King of the Kitchen

A Coromandel beach house has spaces for carefree family living, views that stretch for ever and the best kitchen in the world.

Words: Sue Moody  Photography: Kevin Emirali

IN JANUARY Michelle and Morgan Cronin were on the other side of the world, mingling with 1200 international guests at a lavish black-tie dinner in the Birmingham Hilton. They were attending the Oscars of the kitchen design world and right up there, at centre stage, was the kitchen from their own Coromandel beach house. Amidst the lights, cameras and action, Morgan Cronin was announced as the International Kitchen Designer of the Year, having competed with other finalists from England, Ireland, the United States, Canada and Australia.

"The place went crazy," recalls Michelle. While Morgan stood in the spotlight to receive his award, she ran out of the banqueting hall to call home. As the good news got around, their inbox was flooded with congratulatory calls. "We had no idea of what our competitors’ kitchens were like as the entries were kept under wraps until the presentations were made," says Morgan. "Images of all the kitchen designs flashed up on huge floor screens. I glimpsed just one picture of our kitchen." What is that sort of accolade worth? "Recognition of all Morgan’s hard work," says Michelle. "It’s a great kitchen in a beautiful setting," says Morgan.

It should be. In 2005 Cronin Kitchens produced both the bathroom and kitchen winning designs (the ticket that took them to the international kitchen-fest) in the National Kitchen and Bath Association designer of the year awards. It was fitting recognition of Morgan’s nearly two decades of running his design and manufacturing business as well as years of planning and building their own beach house at Tairua.

Most weekends last year Morgan went on a busman’s holiday: pick up the children from school on Friday afternoon, on to the motorway, past the Bombays and out to the freedom of the Coromandel, anticipating the spritzer of sea salt in the air as they headed to Tairua.

They love it there, having already built a house on Tairua’s Paku hill to fulfill their fantasies of weekend living by some of the east coast’s best surf. Morgan has been a serious surfer since the age of eight. He arrived in New Zealand aged 11, by way of South Africa and Australia. Michelle loves the beach and jokes that their Fijian wedding and honeymoon were arranged around the surf.

Touring Europe in a Combi van with Morgan, she visited not the great cathedrals and museums but made pilgrimages to surfing Meccas in France, Portugal and Spain ("where it rained for a week and we were holed up in a car park with four surfboards in the van"). On the bright side, though: "I’ve been on some amazing beaches."

So when the phone rang with an opportunity to buy a blatantly beachfront piece of the playground peninsula, the couple didn’t hesitate. Morgan relished the challenge of putting his design experience into creating the perfect beach house. "I appreciate all aspects of house design and am fortunate that I get to work with some great New Zealand architects. I spent months refining my house plans to a stage where I was happy to show them to my good friend and colleague, Scott Fowler from Architektur.

"The concept was a floating box, cantilevered, with vertical slats to provide privacy. I tried to keep it simple and to get a share of the view wherever we were in the house. There’s a huge deck at either end. In the evenings the end of the house opens up to the view over the estuary as far as the ranges and we sit outside at the dining table. Scott was able to refine my plans, allowing us to get consents and realistic costings."

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