American surfer needs to sell his tiny original Piha bach in the bush

You know the surf is great when an American flies into Auckland every year to spend the summer surfing Piha.

To make life easier, Eric Gullichsen of Sausalito, California bought a tiny, original ‘40s bach in the bush in 2007, and it has been the perfect base. It even came with the best-possible history – the wee house on the hill was built by Piha surf club founder Edward “Tiger” O’Brien, a local identity back in the day.

The surfer has another life in California as a virtual reality pioneer, where he runs a privately funded R&D lab and has worked as a consultant to industrial and defence-related laboratories. He has written 20 books in the areas of hypertext, logic programming languages, digital logic, neural networks, and virtual reality.

But it’s here on the West Coast where the smart cookie really likes to chill, and it’s all about those waves. However, Gullichsen says the time has come to retreat, and he has listed his 1012m² property with Jim Trubuhovich and Marie Trubuhovich of Piha Real Estate (who sold him the house 16 years ago while working with Barfoot & Thompson).

And there’s no hiding anything here – the one-bedroom timber bach is tiny and original, although there is now a flush toilet in addition to the long drop out the back. Jim Trubuhovich says there’s a steep walk up the hill to get to the hut. And the pathway is a bit damp in winter with the sun behind the hill.

But once you’re up there, you can see the beach and the wave breaks from the deck. And the wee house is undoubtedly cute, with its original kitchen cabinets, albeit now with a distressed finish, stainless steel sink and tapware, mosquito net, and racks for hanging clothes.

In addition to the indoor shower, there’s an outdoor one, perfect for washing off the sand and salt. And there are even solar panels on the roof providing solar hot water, with electric boost.

There’s a garage beside the road, which is bigger than the bach, but it is not code compliant. “The owner had it built, but everyone thought everyone else was responsible for the consenting process, and it seems it never happened,” Trubuhovich says.

”But it’s a great garage, just shy of 50m², including a mezzanine of 14m², and perfect for a car enthusiast or mechanic.”

There is also a separate storage shed for boards and gardening tools.

The property has been listed since February this year, but Trubuhovich says the cyclone put things on hold in the village for a few weeks.

The property, at 58 Seaview Rd, Piha is for sale by negotiation, with a listed price of $949,000, which is $1 less than the 2021 RV.