Inside a billionaire's NZ hideaway

Property editor Anne Gibson gets an exclusive peak inside a $50 million hideaway lodge for the rich and famous, built by Russian billionaire Alexander Abramov in Northland’s beautiful Helena Bay

New Zealand's most expensive new residential lodge is being prepared for a grand opening later next year.

Helena Bay, a $50 million-plus development 40 minutes north of Whangarei, will take only 10 guests at a time for a prospective top rate of up to $3000 per person per night.

That would put it in an exclusive club of similar luxury retreats, including Taupo's Huka Lodge and the Queenstown area's Blanket Bay.

The hideaway lodge - just a 40-minute helicopter ride from Auckland for most of its clientele - has been built for Russian billionaire Alexander Abramov, one of the richest men in the world.

Mr Abramov, who made his fortune in steel and has a number of homes around the world, visited the property last month and is understood to be planning further trips soon.

The Weekend Herald was last week given a sneak preview of the premises, which are due to open in November next year. Top-end features include a health spa wing with Russian-style mosaic tiles, imported Russian and Italin furnishings and a lavish five-to-one staff/guest ratio.

Christopher Seel, Helena Bay Holdings' managing director, said the high staff numbers would ensure guests received the utmost care and attention.

"Staff will be working in the health spa, kitchens, on housekeeping, serving, as porters, office staff, activities and amenities staff, ground staff, vegetable and landscape gardeners," he said.

One staff member said the buildings and property were so sprawling that radios and mobile phones were needed. Mr Seel said golf cart fleets enabled staff to move swiftly around the grounds.

Neil McFarLane, General Manager of Helena Bay Lodge. Photo / Greg Bowker

General manager is Neil McFarlane, originally from Dunoon on Scotland's west coast, on the Cowal Peninsula in Argyll and Bute on the Firth of Clyde. Mr McFarlane knows hospitality, having been a former luxury cruise yacht captain and working throughout the world.

He now lives at Helena Bay with his partner who also works there and said he hoped to become a New Zealand citizen.

"I love this place, there's nowhere else in the world like it. I've only been here a year," Mr McFarlane said.

The main U-shaped lodge is the hub of the 10,000sq m or 1ha of indoor floor space but guests will stay in two of three stand-alone sophisticated waterfront villas just above the golden beach looking out towards the Poor Knights Islands. One villa can be divided into two separate accommodation units and another into three.

Many furnishings have been imported from Russia (custom-made floral neutral-tone linen drapes) Italy (coffee tables, cabinets, drawers and other furniture) and the Middle East (rugs).

But New Zealand materials are also prominent throughout. For example, lounge side tables and a 6m long 14-seat outdoor dining table are made from 3000-year-old swamp kauri. One hand-made kauri hall table is 5m long, standing on curved stainless steel legs.

The large pool that Russian billionaire Alexander Abramov likes heated to 30 degrees when he stays at the remote Helena Bay lodge in Northland. Photo / Greg Bowker

Helena Bay luxury lodge owned by Russian billionaire Alexander Abramov. Photo / Greg Bowker

Russian art works line the corridors of the remote luxury Helena Bay Lodge in Northland. Photo / Greg Bowker

The plunge pool at Helena Bay Lodge is surrounded by hundreds of thousands of tiles. Photo / Greg Bowker

The 3m-high Totara double front doors were hand-carved by Raglan-based artist, carver and surf board maker Aaron Te Whanatango Kereopa, Mr Seel said.

Mr Kereopa had designed then carved a Maori motif for the doors. Large curved twin metal handles were specially designed and manufactured by a British foundry. Light boxes either side of the front doors are 2m high.

Guests can arrive via a 40-minute trip from Auckland in the "Maserati of helicopters", an Augusta Westland AW109s Grand capable of travelling at a 310kmph, a third faster than most helicopters. Or they can take the old-fashioned route down the 1km driveway through the bush, off a back road to Russell. After passing through the grand front doors, they step onto a hand-made Persian rug and into an art-gallery style hallway stretching the full width of the lodge towards Helena Bay.

A reception area and offices are to the left, while art works are displayed to the right. An extensive painting and sculpture collection, hand-made crystal chandeliers, Italian wood-grain floor tiles, sparkling black granite bench tops and custom-made plaster architraves stamped with Helena Bay's distinctive Maori/Celtic logo are other features.

The décor is under-stated in neutral pallettes so it doesn't compete with the breathtaking sea views.

Mr Seel said that throughout next year, the property would be shown to a select few as preparations were made for full operation. Helena Bay will then join a circuit of other luxury retreats including Taupo's Huka Lodge and the Queenstown area's Blanket Bay.

"What I love about this most is the classic nature of it. When you come back in 10, 20 or 50 years time, it won't have dated," Mr Seel said of the buildings by Greg Jones of Auckland-based Jones Architects.

Water in the 25m in-ground central courtyard pool is not kept clean with chlorine or saline, but via electrolysis and a sophisticated combination of copper, and titanium.
One entire wing of the lodge is a spa or health retreat, with tongue-in-groove wood floor gym where exer-cycles overlook the pool.

"There are more than 1 million ceramic tiles on the walls," Mr Seel said. "This wing has a gymnasium, dry sauna, wet sauna, plunge pool, massage and treatment room, changing rooms, bathrooms, showers and retreat space. This is Russian or Roman bathhouse style with all these mosaics."

The lodge can run indefinitely without mains electricity, its electronic, electrical and surveillance systems run by powerful diesel generators.

Who is Alexander Abramov?

Alexander Abramov. Photo / Supplied

The Russian with a great affinity for New Zealand appears on this year's Forbes rich list with a US$3.6 billion fortune from steel, mining and self-made worth.

The 56-year-old got his start as the head of a research lab before the collapse of the Soviet Union.

In 1992, he established a precursor to Evraz Holding, and he made a fortune exporting metals and coal from the Urals and Siberia.

He is partners with billionaire Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea football club, in the steel company Evraz.

In 2013, the two bought a 5.9 per cent stake in Norilsk Nickel from billionaire Vladimir Potanin's conglomerate, Interros, and from UC Rusal, the huge aluminum company headed by billionaire Oleg Deripaska, Forbes reported.

He loves New Zealand, particularly its wild northern unspoilt coastlines and spotted the perfect opportunity when Helena Bay came up for sale in Northland. However he owns a number of residences around the world, including in London and Moscow. He has three children.

Luxury lodge strikes up deal with top restaurant

The operators of a Northland luxury lodge have struck a deal with one of the world's best restaurants based on the Mediterranean.

Christopher Seel, managing director of Helena Bay Holdings which is running the new Bay of Islands waterfront retreat, announced that a franchise arrangement had been signed with Don Alfonso 1890, the internationally acclaimed Italian restaurant founded 125 years ago.

Christopher Seel, Managing Director of Helena Bay Holdings. Photo / Greg Bowker

"That has three Michelin stars and is in southern Italy," Mr Seel said of the Campania countryside restaurant on a headland where the gulf of Naples meets the gulf of Salerno on the popular Sorrento peninsula.

"This will bring a whole new level of dining to New Zealand from what is probably Italy's best restaurant, where they grow all their own food in organic gardens. And we have one of their chefs, Michel Martino," Mr Seel said.

However, the menu won't be available to the public. Only Helena Bay guests will savour the Italian expertise.

On the day The Herald visited, Mr Martino was working with a German-born chef, preparing a seafood luncheon menu of fresh crayfish, scallops, prawns, scampi and Hapuka. All is from the local area. Resort-grown herbs included mint, lemon balm and rosemary. Wagu beef from the resort's own farm, Panini and salad was being prepared in the commercial-style kitchen lined with stainless steel appliances.

However, most of the hard culinary work begins in a subterranean level. A separate food preparation room is on an under-ground level. That room is equipped a dumb waiter to transport food quickly and easily between the floors.

Alongside is a two-room cellar capable of storing thousands of bottles of wine: one room is for red wines and one is for whites.