Having lots of money can’t buy you love, but it sure buys a whole lot of other fun stuff.
The jury is out on whether money can buy you happiness - recent research by AUT has shown people who feel they can live on what they earn report the highest levels of life satisfaction, no matter what their income - and UK studies suggest net financial wealth is directly correlated to feelings of wellbeing. But one thing is for sure: it can buy you a lot of other stuff.
Back in 1987 when Lotto was first introduced to New Zealand, winning first division could set you up for life. Nowadays, $1 million won't get you very far, especially if you want to try to buy a house in Auckland.
But there is always the possibility of a big Powerball win to raise you up into the super-rich stakes - or you could set up and/or sell a successful business, write a mega-selling song or book or make a killing in property. What would you spend that money on, if you had the spare cash to splash?
For a mere $20 million, give or take, you could be the owner of this Roy Binney-designed estate on Remuera Rd, being marketed by Graham Wall, who sold the Paritai Drive Hotchin mansion for $39 million.
Set on more than 6000sq m, this property's park-like grounds include a swimming pool and pool house, an Astroturf tennis court and even a rifle range. Inside, it has a billiard room.
Back on Paritai Drive, $11m could secure you a 742sq m contemporary mansion designed by Ron Sang, which has been on the market several times over the past few years. The house, on the corner of Tuhaere St, has expansive views of the harbour and gulf, four bedrooms, four bathrooms and four-car garaging. There's also a swimming pool and a water-feature in the foyer.
Bear in mind owning a property like this will set you back around $23,217 a year in rates, which might make you think twice unless your pockets are super deep.
If you want to live in a rock-star's previous house, the Finn family's former home, where Neil and Sharon raised their kids, Liam and Elroy, at 18 Corunna Ave, Parnell, is also for sale.
Just around the corner from Prime Minister John Key's house, the grand old five-bedroom villa was passed in at auction in July and is now listed for a bargain $3.75m.
542 Remuera Rd: $20 million.
And if you've ever had the urge to own your own island - and your budget is sufficient - you could be the new owner of the resort island of Pakatoa, tucked into the eastern end of Waiheke in Auckland's Hauraki Gulf.
The island, which has been on the market since December, has a price tag of $40m and includes a central conference facility with restaurant, bar and swimming pool and entertaining areas, plus 24 attached accommodation units, 38 stand-alone units and staff quarters.
Personal help
One of the other handy things money can buy is help around the home. The days of the super-rich having a retinue of staff like in Downtown Abbey are gone, but you can still get a hand with the chores.
If cooking doesn't spin your wheels, you could hire a personal chef, either to work in your home or to make you ready-made meals. Stephen Weeks, and his company Free Range Chef, can deliver as few or as many meals as you require, to get you through the busy times or just to take catering off your plate, so to speak.
East Day Spa: $90 - $515.
Weeks, who worked as a full-time private chef in Europe, now creates and delivers meals to clients around Auckland, starting from around $15 a serving for healthy, hand-prepared dinners to about $800 a week for a comprehensive service.
Weeks says many of his clients are busy businesspeople - unless you win Lotto, chances are you have to work pretty hard for all that money - who don't have time to shop and cook but don't want to eat out or get takeaways all the time.
"There are people in Auckland who have full-time chefs working for them, but it is not as common here as it is in the United States or Europe," Weeks says.
Free Range Chef also offers a "Fill My Fridge" service, where easy-to-reheat entree, main meal and dessert choices can be delivered, vacuum-packed or frozen. They offer a different menu each week and cater for special diets such as gluten-free and dairy-free.
And although no doubt the super-wealthy do much of their clothes shopping overseas, if you need someone to give you a hand in Auckland you can hire a personal shopper and stylist to keep you up to date with the latest trends, develop a personal "look book" of outfits and take you around the traps.
Jacqui Chapman of Ministry of Style offers a range of packages and an hourly rate of $70 for personal shopping, wardrobe analysis and editing and style makeovers. Her clients include women and men who are looking for outfits beyond their regular weekday business suits.
Chapman says a typical high-end Auckland shopping trip would take in the boutiques of Ponsonby Rd - the likes of Kate Sylvester, Zambesi and WORLD, Teed and Nuffield streets in Newmarket and the stores around Britomart.
For the real high-rollers there are the international brands concentrated around lower Queen St: Louis Vuitton, Prada and Gucci.
And of course, if you had plenty of money to spend you'd want to take good care of yourself.
East Day Spa at the SkyCity Hotel has a comprehensive treatment menu for the whole body, from its 302 facial for $90 through to the ultimate Memsahib spa package for $515, including massage, facial, manicure, pedicure and lunch.
Getting around
There's no point in being rich and driving around in an inconspicuous car.
If you have half a million dollars or more to splash on your vehicle, Continental Cars is the country's only Ferrari dealer. You can buy the ability to do 0-100km/h in 3.6 seconds in an ex-demonstrator Ferrari California T ($499,000 in red with a black-and-beige leather interior); or go for the most powerful car the marque produces, the top-of-the-range F12, for $625,000. You might not get much of a chance to try out its top speed of more than 340km/h on the Southern Motorway, but it's still nice to know you have the option.
Ferrari California: $499,000 - $625,000.
Of course, a Ferrari isn't the most practical vehicle to do the school run or to take to the supermarket - imagine if someone scratched it in the carpark - so you might like to pick up a more useable Porsche Cayenne for around $137,000, or $195,860 for the environmentally friendly plug-in hybrid version.
For longer commutes to and from the bach - or your private island - a helicopter might be more convenient. You can pick up a three-passenger Robinson R44 Raven II helicopter for around $697,000, but if it's too much hassle to get your own chopper, companies such as Helicopter Me offer transfers, charters, fly and dine packages and luxury overnight trips to high-end resorts such as Kauri Cliffs north of the Bay of Islands.
For $3499 per person, you can be coptered to the golf resort and enjoy luxury accomodation, pre-dinner drinks and hors d'oeuvres, a three-course dinner and breakfast in the morning before flying home.
Heletranz has added a twin-engine VIP Agusta 109S Grand helicopter to its fleet, the first of its kind in New Zealand. The company offers a tailored "heli-concierge" service around the clock, promising "immediate response and personalised quotes, no matter your budget".
If you did go down the private island route, or even if you just want to be able to get away and enjoy the Hauraki Gulf and the cruising grounds further north, you'll need a decent-sized launch. New Zealand agents R Marine have an ex-demonstrator Riviera 515 SUV ready to go. At 17.26m, it sleeps six or more in three cabins, with two toilets, two showers, a fully equipped kitchen, a top-dollar entertainment system and Blu-ray player. It has a hydraulic swim platform and built-in bait tank for when you feel like dangling a line over the side. That'll be $1.8m, thanks.
When it comes down to it, if your Lotto numbers don't come up or inspiration for that world-changing product doesn't come, you can still feel like a millionaire in your own backyard. Grab some fish and chips and enjoy the million-dollar views from Takapuna or Milford Beach, Mission Bay or Piha.
