Farm tour guide Jonny Eastwick, director of Boomrock, takes small groups on farm tours on his all-terrain vehicle at Rosewood Cape Kidnappers. Hong Kong-based Rosewood has taken over the management of three Robertson Lodges throughout New Zealand. Photo / Jason Oxenham.
Farm tour guide Jonny Eastwick, director of Boomrock, takes small groups on farm tours on his all-terrain vehicle at Rosewood Cape Kidnappers. Hong Kong-based Rosewood has taken over the management of three Robertson Lodges throughout New Zealand. Photo / Jason Oxenham.
On the far reaches of the newly named Rosewood Cape Kidnappers, paua the size of pudding plates are abundant in knee-deep water.
Around the main lodge building and its 22 suites and cottages, there are low-flying kerurū and tūī, sometimes kiwi at night, and nearby there’s a kākā rookery wherethis magnificent native parrot is thriving. Rosewood Cape Kidnappers is a 2430ha working farm, with close to a sixth of the “rough block” covered in mānuka, kānuka and other regenerating native trees.
In the bush are bellbirds, toutouwai (North Island robin) and kākāriki. Kiwi were reintroduced to the area when a 10.5km predator-proof fence was finished in 2007.
It’s a nature lover’s paradise – at a cost.
Depending on the time of year, a stay at the lodge ranges up to $30,000 a night (for the four-bedroom cottage). The least costly accommodation is about $2000 a night.
Every farm-style suite offers guests a private balcony with views over the farm and out to the Pacific Ocean, a bedroom with a sitting area, walk-in wardrobes (close to the size of some inner-city apartment bedrooms) and a bathroom, also with a view.
For each night stayed, you get pre-dinner drinks and canapes, a gourmet dinner, full breakfast and a complimentary non-alcoholic mini-bar.
The kererū or New Zealand pigeon at Rosewood Cape Kidnappers. Photo / Jason Oxenham.
Guests also get access to a gymnasium, beautifully set swimming pool, tennis court and general lodge facilities.
Originally known as Te Kauwae-a-Māui (the jawbone of Māui), Cape Kidnappers takes its name from the story of Māui fishing up the North Island (Te Ika-a-Māui), using his grandmother’s jawbone as a hook. The curve of the cape represents the hook, while another name for the wider Hawke’s Bay region area is Te Matau-a-Māui (the fish hook of Māui).
The area was acquired by the Crown around 1850, 13,000 acres was sold off to farmers, then carved up to a property about half that size. After businessman/farmer Robert Fisher had rescued a scruffy farm, it was bought by Julian Robertson just over 20 years ago, in need of rehabilitation and largely bereft of native wildlife.
Jonny Eastwick runs a tour of the property on a grunty Can-Am Defender six-seater vehicle, negotiating seemingly impossible gradients with ease.
There are about 2500 head of Romney-cross sheep and 500 Angus cattle, and the mostly American tourists are fascinated by the fact that just two farmers run the whole operation.
The Cape Kidnappers landscape that guests can experience while on farm tours on an all-terrain vehicle at Rosewood Cape Kidnappers. Photo / Jason Oxenham.
Dropping down to the sand dunes behind the cape (part of a big dune regeneration programme in the area), you pass a freshwater spring that sustained Māori and then whalers who launched off beaches in the 1840s and 1850s.
Near the circular Flat Rock, you’ll find the paua watched over by pied stilts.
It’s the quiet that amazes visitors, says Eastwick. “They’re stunned, there’s no boats, no noise – they take off their shoes and stand in the water.”
A little further north and around the tooth of the cape itself is Black Reef, home to close to 20,000 gannets, which harvest about three tonnes of fish a day from the surrounding waters.
They have a 2m wingspan, complete the annual migration to Australia in six to 10 days, and return to the same spot on the cape.
The gannet colony at Rosewood Cape Kidnappers. Photo / Jason Oxenham.
The Cape Sanctuary wildlife group, working with the lodge and other landowners, has re-introduced 23 species to Cape Kidnappers and 19 have successfully taken hold.
While the brown kiwi programme, particularly bird-holding by guests, faced criticism, the population has soared since they were re-introduced.
Around 2007-08 74 kiwi were introduced. There are now 100 breeding pairs and between 550 and 600 kiwi in the area. About 20 are rounded up each year and sent to other parts of the country, at present to the Ruahine Ranges.
Jay Robertson, who ran the lodge for more than 15 years, says kiwi tours have changed; you can still go out and observe them, but you can’t hold them.
“We don’t get too close,” he says. “I worked up here for many years and I was never able to see one.”
But now it’s not uncommon for visitors to see kiwi walking around the lodge or golf course in the morning.
“It’s great to know that they’re out there.”
The par 71 Cape Kidnappers golf course was designed by acclaimed course architect Tom Doak and is described as “an engaging challenge” across 6569m.
Golf Digest writer Evin Priest says it’s the type of course that keeps players coming back because the views are so spectacular.
Tūī on the lodge grounds at Rosewood Cape Kidnappers. Photo / Jason Oxenham.
The course regularly features in the world’s top 50.
“Its architecture is a marvel. A lot of the holes are very, very memorable,” says Priest, an Australian reporter who was at Cape Kidnappers for the management handover from the Robertsons to Rosewood Hotels and Resorts.
There’s a 20m deep reservoir between the lodge and the golf course, which needs about two million litres of water a day during summer.
Grant Bradley has been working at the Herald since 1993. He is the Business Herald’s deputy editor and covers aviation and tourism.
The Herald travelled courtesy of Rosewood Cape Kidnappers
