KEY POINTS:
While some of us pack up the family station-wagon and head to a modest motor camp for our holidays, the rich - as F Scott Fitzgerald famously said - are different. They buy multi-million-dollar properties in the country's most spectacular locations... but may stay there for as little
as three weeks a year.
Despite the advantages wealth has given them, their biggest problem in the hunt for real estate can be choosing the ultimate holiday hotspot.
Celebrity real estate agent Michael Boulgaris says the super-rich prefer the Bay of Islands and Waiheke Island, where they can "chopper in".
Although these areas - and the South Island resort of Queenstown - are always popular for holidaymakers, Boulgaris says he has noticed some changes recently. "Everybody seems to be heading north, around Tutukaka," he says. Some industry insiders claim this might be because booming areas like Pauanaui and Omaha are getting too crowded. "You're basically seeing all your next-door-neighbours; it's pointless leaving town," says one.
Boulgaris says those who can afford the best want total privacy - and to get that you have to head further north.
A Herald On Sunday investigation shows where famous faces - both homegrown and imported - could be staying these holidays.
NORTHLAND
New National Party leader and multi-millionaire John Key and fashion designer Trelise Cooper both have beachfront properties at Omaha, Key's on the aptly named Success Court.
Former Shortland Street stars, husband-and-wife actors Katie Wolfe and Tim Balme part own with TVNZ publicist Rachel Lorimer, a rural block in Mangawhai.
New Zealand-born UK-based pop singer-songwriter Daniel Bedingfield, a Grammy nominee, often drops in on his parents' holiday home in Whangarei.
BAY OF ISLANDS
Ross Blackman, of New Zealand America's Cup fame, has a holiday home in historic Russell, Bay of Islands, a popular haunt not only of New Zealand's rich and famous but many overseas visitors, too.
"It's the old cliche but it's the ultimate playground up here for people who enjoy the ultimate Kiwi holiday," says local agent Charlie Brendon-Cook.
"It has good fishing, good sailing and is one of the most picturesque places in New Zealand."
Land there can go from as little as $180,000 to $15 million-plus.
"You can always a find a quiet bolthole up here," says Brendon-Cook.
Phantom Of The Opera star Michael Crawford obviously agrees. The British-born entertainer, who has homes in the US and England, paid $3m last year for an Opito Bay house in the hills overlooking Doves Bay.
Opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa has a holiday home at exclusive Rawhiti, near Parekura Bay. Craig Heatley, IT investor and founder of Sky Television, has a retreat at Moturua Island, in the central Bay of Islands.
PIHA
Auckland art collector and philanthropist Jenny Gibbs, has a holiday home at Piha. Her unusual glass-boxed style-house caused a stir among locals when it was built atop a ridge with great views. It later featured in a Telecom ad (the one in which a man paints his wife's toenails as she video-conferences). The property was one of the first to include a drive and locked gate - signs of creeping exclusivity at the rugged locale.
Musician Neil Finn and his family built a home on prime beachfront some years back, and TV star Marc Ellis has reportedly bought land here.
WAIHEKE ISLAND
Mark Hotchin, of Hanover Finance, purchased a $14m property at Boatshed Bay this year - on the eastern side of Palm Beach, a north-facing white sand beach. Graeme Hart - New Zealand's richest man - owns 40ha nearby.
Hart's daughter Gretchen married Duncan Hawkesby, brother of newsreader Kate and the son of "million-dollar-man" John Hawkesby who lives on the island with his wife Joyce.
RAGLAN
Rumour has it that American musicians Ben Harper and Jack Johnson are enamoured with the surfing at Raglan, but local agents were unable to confirm the duo had bought property in the region.
Former All Black Josh Kronfeld, based in Dunedin, has a holiday home in Whale Bay, while former Silver Fern-turned-TV One commentator Jenny May Coffin is at Moonlight Bay, and golfer Greg Smale has a waterfront home in Lorenzen Bay.
"The area has boomed in recent years," said Ray White agent Sue Winter.
"It's partly the surfing and partly because it has retained its uniqueness."
A recent sale at prestigious Whale Bay went for $1.7m.
"There's nothing under $1m," said Winter.
MERCURY ISLANDS
The Mercury Islands, 8km off the Coromandel are renowned for their natural beauty. Great Mercury Island is owned by businessman Michael Fay, who lives in Switzerland. The island has two luxurious residences and can be hired for around $20,000 a day. U2's Bono and The Edge stayed on the island last month.
COROMANDEL/MT MAUNGANUI
When he's not LA-based or running around the world with the contestants of The Amazing Race, Emmy Award winner (and Kiwi) Phil Keoghan likes to take off with his wife Louise and daughter Elle to his longtime Whitianga retreat.
Roland Gift, the British-Jamaican lead singer of 80s band Fine Young Cannibals - and the face of BankDirect TV ads - has confessed to not spending much time on his Coromandel farm.
"I pop in for a visit, go goat hunting, then leave," he once said.
Christchurch-based George Gould has substantial property holdings. Although the family base is in suburban Fendalton, he jointly owns a 4ha property at Rolleston valued at $600,000 and has a million-dollar holiday home at Whangapoua in the Coromandel Peninsula.
Cambridge Stud horse breeder Sir Patrick Hogan has a three-level mega-bach on Marine Parade, Mount Maunganui, named Sir Tristam Place - after Hogan's famous stallion. Some locals are reported to have called it an architectural monstrosity.
Nearby is the holiday home of Auckland businesswoman Sharon Hunter, founder of PC Direct, and her husband Tenby Powell, managing director of equipment hire company Hirepool and commanding officer of the third Northland/Auckland Regiment.
The couple, believed to be worth $45m, have been dubbed "business's most glamorous" by the National Business Review.
HAWKE'S BAY
Broadcaster Paul Holmes bought a secluded mansion in rural Hastings in early 1999, which is believed to have set him back over $1m. Set in 18ha of farm land the seven-bedroomed Mana Lodge is equipped with a pool, gymnasium, tennis court and stables. Holmes often speaks on Newstzalk ZB of how fond he is of the place.
WAIRARAPA
Ex-pat Australians Jane Diplock (chairwoman of the Securities Commission) and banker husband Philip Meyer have a $1m-plus home in Wadestown, and a country retreat in the Wairarapa about an hour from the capital.
MARLBOROUGH SOUNDS
"Power couple" Max and Rosemary Bradford live in elite Oriental Bay in Wellington but have a holiday home in the Marlborough Sounds and a property next door to Peter Jackson's multi-million-dollar fantasy home in the Wairarapa.
QUEENSTOWN
"A lot of people have a holiday home in Queenstown because of the skiing, particularly if they have teenage children," says Boulgaris. "It's also lovely in the summer time with the lakes and the fishing. In fact, it has all-year round four seasons of entertainment - whether it be tramping, hiking, skiing, boating, fishing."
Canadian singer Shania Twain was certainly hooked on its charms.
Her attempt to purchase South Island high country land (and then build a substantial house on it) caused a stir.
The superstar and her reclusive producer husband Robert "Mutt" Lange were eventually given Overseas Investment Commission approval to buy two neighbouring sheep stations near Lake Wanaka, Motatapu and Mt Soho, totalling 24,731ha - for $21.5m.
Philip Carter owns substantial property (hotels, commercial buildings and blocks of residential land) in central Christchurch but also has a holiday home in Queenstown.
Hollywood star Sam Neill owns the Two Paddocks vineyard, over three sites, in Queenstown.
His next-door neighbour, film director Roger Donaldson, also grows grapes.
His vineyard is named, aptly enough, Donaldson Vineyards.
