Privately owned island deal approved

Government permission has been granted for a chunk of one of the few privately owned islands in the Bay of Islands to change hands for $1.9 million.

New Zealander Peter Cooper has sold a 40 per cent share in tiny Motuapo Island to his American and British business associates.

The picturesque hilltop sanctuary sits just 400m off a golden beach lined with pohutakawa on the mainland. Motuapo is in a group of five islands that make up the Te Pahi group.

At just 1ha, Motuapo is one of the Bay's smallest inhabited islands.

Mr Cooper, the millionaire property developer who won Auckland's Britomart tender, has owned the island for some time. It sits just off the coast from his 338ha Mountain Landing estate, where a 39-lot subdivision is being created as a lifestyle community.

He said in his sale application to the Overseas Investment Office that the deal was crucial to his Mountain Landing project, and he planned to refurbish the bach on the island and transform it into "a premium eco-retreat".