New owner Vanessa Nikolaidis said shifting the 11m-wide upper and lower sections went according to plan, bar one squashed temporary fence and two popped tyres.
The 1920s-era building and former eye clinic at St George’s Hospital on Papanui Rd was sold off as the hospital plans a cancer treatment ward at the site.
Nikolaidis loves old homes, and was thrilled with her find, now located in Tai Tapu.
“I wanted to build a new heritage homestead, but I looked at the price and then found this lovely old house was available,” she said.
A large crane lifted the upper section onto a transporter, before the journey out of town, around past the airport.
"Papanui Rd wasn’t an issue. Belfast Rd got a bit tight in a few areas, because there was parked cars they had to kind of wiggle it around.
"Halswell Junction Rd was quite tight as well, half on the footpath half on the road, hovering over people’s yards to get down there,” Nikolaidis said.
"The only thing they managed to drop it on was a temporary fence. We looked at it when they picked it back up, it kind of squished it sideways.”
"They didn’t change it, they just kept driving.”
The upper and lower storeys have been reunited at their new Michaels Rd residence and will be lifted in one piece onto a new foundation when this is completed.
Nikolaidis said she and her partner would live in the four-bedroom, two-lounge, two-bathroom villa. It would be in good company, with another home from the 1880s already at the property, which is a family farm.
