A private island near Nelson is attracting interest here and overseas, with the possibility the $16 million property could come back into Kiwi hands.
“With Pepin, you've got the whole thing,” says New Zealand Sotheby's International Realty Sales Associate John Bampfylde.
“You've got an island that genuinely is a lovely large island, but also its not as though you have to take a boat trip, ferry ride and then a helicopter ride to get to it”.
Some, however, have travelled a long way to visit the 520 hectare space, including those playing in a golf tournament dubbed the “most outrageous” in the world.
A 1 NEWS report from 1995 captured the colourful game, put on as a fundraiser for the Nelson North Country Club.
“It started off about having a canoeing competition around the island, then it led to, ‘Why not play golf around the island?’ And I thought, 'Well, that's the most silliest bloody thing I've ever heard of’,” Vice President John Taylor told 1 NEWS.
The former Pepin Island owner hosted the event for a number of years.
“Someone would say, ‘There's half a tree stump, we'll hit off a ball there or we'll hit something out into the tide’.”
He sold the island to a German businesswoman and it's been managed as a working farm for more than 20 years.
There was a run-in with the overseas investment office over the sale conditions, which was later resolved. And work to restore native bush and control pests won a regional environment award.
“Just part of the owner's desire to see things looking a bit better, a lot of her emphasis was in those areas,” farm manager Andrew Newton explains.
Anyone can stay overnight in one of the three chalets available to rent.
“Some people come back for their anniversary each year. They've had a honeymoon and a booking in the next!” laughs Mr Newton.
Mr Bampfylde says there are “three types” of people enquiring about the property listing, including non-New Zealanders from overseas and “those that live locally, that live in New Zealand”.
But he says there’s also “a fair number of Kiwis” living overseas who have seen the advertising and are thinking, “Well, this might be the reason I come back to New Zealand”.
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