Kiwi buys US ski resort

Nick Wood. Photo / Paul Estcourt

The Auckland-based entrepreneur who co-founded ihug plans to spend millions of dollars on a United States ski resort.

Nick Wood, of Silverdale, has paid just under US$300,000 ($410,000) for the Teton Pass Ski Resort, west of Choteau, in Montana, and said he would spend more than $4 million during the next two years to improve the ski area. The resort is about 160km north of the state capital, Helena.

Wood said he plans to build two new skilifts to add more than 100 hectares of extra skiing, the Missoulian newspaper reported. The New Zealander - who with his brother Tim founded ihug and sold it for $80 million in 2003 - told the newspaper he also planned to repair existing lifts and renovate all the buildings.

Wood has previously invested in luxury overseas holiday accommodation, initially through his Octopus resort in Fiji, then through his California-based company Distinctive Holiday Homes, which owns luxury homes in Australia, New Zealand, the US, France and Italy and two yachts in the Mediterranean.

- NZPA