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The private airfield at Springhill Farm south of Wellsford is up for sale, two years after its owners bought it from Waste Management NZ (WM).
WM had acquired the 870-metre sealed airstrip, two hangars and a clubroom as part of its purchase of Springhill Farm and Matariki Forest land in 2017, just before it announced its controversial plans to develop a massive new regional landfill there.
However, retired commercial pilot Tim Harrison and wife Carol, who built a six-bedroom home on the farm just south of the runway when the late businessman Richard Izard owned the property, managed to buy the airfield from WM in 2022.
The former British Airways captain has since been running his company, Sports Aircraft NZ, from the site and has kept the runway open for visiting planes, helicopters and fly-in days, but is now looking for a quieter life.
“We’re getting to that stage of life where we want to downsize and not be tied to the land we have,” he said. “We’ve always been very active, but we’re suddenly getting to the stage where it feels like the land owns us, instead of us owning the land.”
He added that while WM had been an “unwelcome neighbour” at first, any consent now would come with increased environmental demands.
“If it does go ahead, there are going to be a lot of restrictions. They would have to do a lot of work ecologically on the farm, in terms of planting and pest control,” he said.
“They would have to plant out all the farm with natives, but of course it’s still all up in the air a bit, if you’ll excuse the pun.”
Harrison said ideally any purchaser would keep Springhill as an open airstrip, available to any pilots wishing to use it. If the property sells, he plans to keep his own plane, if not at Springhill then at Kaipara Flats, where he flew from in the past, and the couple are looking to stay in the Mahurangi area.
“We’ve just set the thing in motion and we’ll see where it takes us. It’s something we want to do while we’re still in control of our faculties, and not be forced into it,” he said.
The airstrip was originally laid down for top-dressing planes and when Richard Izard bought it more than 40 years ago, he developed it into a full-length aerodrome.
When Izard moved to Taupo in 2008, the property was bought by internet and motor racing millionaire Tony Lentino until his death from cancer in 2016.
Springhill Airfield, plus the Harrison family home and gardens, are on the market with Bayleys Warkworth. The property also comes with resource consent to develop a five-lot subdivision and is consented for five commercial flights from the field per day, as well as aircraft assembly, maintenance and storage. Tenders were due to close on Friday, March 1.
