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Over the last decade or so, New Zealand’s fantasy landscapes have been transformed by twin aristocratic American obsessions: golf and doomsday.
Billionaires and tech oligarchs, half aware of the social destruction their own companies have wrought, bought up tracts of Middle Earth-like terrain to build bug-out bunkers far from potential conflict zones.
At the same time, New Zealand was attracting a fresh generation of wealthy golf fanatics. They saw those same dramatic ocean cliffsides and rugged turf and instead of thinking about the end of the world, told their caddies to pass the mashie.
Exclusive new clubs opened — and then kept opening. New Zealand is now home to more than a dozen world-renowned, marquee courses.
That American-fueled momentum isn’t likely to slow. Earlier this year, the government of New Zealand relaxed the rules for its roughly $3 million golden visa program (officially Active Investor Plus). Since then, some 700 foreigners have bought the right to call themselves Kiwis, most of them Yanks.
Those deep-pocketed Americans considering an escape from the topsy-turvy US of A for the calm of Southern Hemisphere sheep pastures and the taste of manuka honey are now drawing global luxury hotel brands to New Zealand for the first time.
At the close of 2023, Hong Kong-based luxury hotel brand Rosewood took over operation of three of the nation’s most storied resorts and golf clubs: Kauri Cliffs in the blustery Bay of Islands at the tippy top of Kiwi country; Cape Kidnappers set high on the cliffs over wine-soaked Hawke’s Bay and Matakauri hidden in the woods along Lake Wakatipu below the ski slopes of Queenstown.
It was big news for a country whose luxury lodges have long operated as family affairs (there’s nary a Four Seasons in this corner of the antipodes). Still, it’s taken time for the word to spread.
Each of those resorts was born from an earlier wave of American investment in New Zealand. In the first decade of the 2000s, the late American billionaire and hedge fund titan Julian Robertson went on a New Zealand buying spree purchasing, developing or redeveloping the aforementioned trio into world-class resorts and golf clubs.
His family continues to own the properties.
Now, nearly two years into Rosewood management, a new guest is being drawn to New Zealand’s most luxurious lodge circuit — and they’re coming with their own perspectives and demands.
Kauri Cliffs is a boutique affair centered around a historic home with 26 rooms, 22 suites and four surrounding villas. What isn’t boutique are its grounds: 6,000 acres of working sheep and cattle farmland. But until Rosewood arrived it was known almost exclusively for its windswept golf links overlooking the Pacific Ocean designed by Jack Nicklaus protégé David Harman.
Single-minded sorts, the golfers would come in for the day, or weekend, swipe at the greens and go to bed early. Today, the scene is somewhat more diverse. The golfers still come for lunch and a drive. Doomsday profits who happen to be in the area (like Peter Thiel) are also known to pop in. But the new Rosewood crowd wants a bit more out of a $1,500 to $18,000-a-night stay.
They want to leave knowing a thing or two about where they went and why. They’re signing up for guided tours with local Maori experts to gain a deeper understanding of New Zealand’s indigenous heritage. Or, they’re hopping aboard ATVs to explore the dynamic landscapes hidden across the immense coastal terrain.
Spa sessions, beach barbecues and banqueting at the resort’s fine-dining restaurant are now primary, rather than secondary reasons for checking in.
It’s a similar story down south at Cape Kidnappers, which is also famous primarily for its golf course set across towering cliffsides plunging into the ocean.
But here again, the Rosewood set are turning the 26-room, 22-suite, single-villa resort into the center of activity. Cocktails, wine tastings and moody dinners looking out onto the manicured lawn are popular pastimes. But what these well-heeled city slickers really crave is a taste of the simple life. The resort, also about 6,000 acres in size, is a working farm. It allows guests to develop a taste for sheep shearing and mustering. Birders come to see colonies of gannets and thriving populations of kiwis (keep your eyes peeled in the evening), as well as rare ducks, parrots and prehistoric-looking, flightless takahes.
Head down to the remote beaches on a Cam-Am tour for another perspective on these dramatic surrounds full of arches and sea spouts. These are the delights golfers mostly miss.
On the South Island, Matakauri is a slightly different story. Queenstown is an adventure hub and while there are golf links and tech oligarchs in the vicinity, the people are here to ski in the winter and splash in the summer. The resort adds Rosewood-style to those endeavors, which can include an aerial plunge from the Kawarau Bridge via bungy, skydiving, and even a commute to the resort via one of New Zealand’s home-made jet-boats. For a nightcap, head out for an evening under the stars in a certified International Dark Sky Place. You’ll be joined by the world’s most gregarious Scottish astrophysicist.
None of this is exactly new to New Zealand, but the polish, amenities and people are. If you’re grated by golf and unperturbed by the end times, now’s the right time to join the flock.
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