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John Hawkesby loves it so much you'd have to drag him "kicking and screaming" back to the city. Mad Butcher Peter Leitch calls it "paradise" and Mainfreight founder Bruce Plested adores the laidback lifestyle.
The trio are among the many Rich Listers and celebrities to live or own a holiday home on Waiheke, an increasingly exclusive bolthole just 18km from downtown Auckland.
Settled by Maori about 1000 years ago, Waiheke - meaning cascading waters - has a permanent population of about 8000. A large majority live in the western half, where picture-postcard homes nestle in native bush near hidden bays.
Former TV presenter Hawkesby couldn't get much further west. His long, bungalow-style homestead - with swimming pool and uninterrupted views of the gulf and Auckland skyline - is above Church Bay, near the ferry terminal at Matiatia.
He told the Herald on Sunday Waiheke reminded him of New Zealand in the 1950s - no malls, no KFC and a real sense of community.
"People think you live on Mars because you're on an island, but I'm only 30 minutes away from the city. It's with a sense of foreboding and a heavy heart that I get on the ferry to come into Auckland city. It's nice here, I like it. People wave at you."
Below Hawkesby is New Zealand's richest man, Graeme Hart, whose $14 million property includes a fair chunk of Church Bay behind a modern, beachfront mansion with guest wing and swimming pool.
Other high-profile property owners include Hanover Finance co-owner Mark Hotchin, Dean and Mandy Barker, Brad Butterworth, Olympic hero Sir Murray Halberg, Fonterra chief Andrew Ferrier, Commonwealth Bank of Australia chief executive Ralph Norris and PR guru Michelle Boag.
Waiheke real estate agent Sherryn El Bakary said the island's proximity to Auckland, superb vineyard restaurants, clean and sandy north-facing beaches and climate were among the factors that made it popular with the well-heeled, pushing property prices through the roof. El Bakary, who works for Bayleys, said a three-bedroom, three-bathroom waterfront property that sold for $379,000 in 1997 was given a registered valuation of $1.6 million a decade later. Prime spots at Matiatia have seen bigger increases. A section sold for about $300,000 in the late 1990s went for $3 million in November 2005, albeit with a home built on the land.
El Bakary said any island close to a city became exclusive real estate.
"People want to be able to get away from the rat-race. It's a slower pace of lifestyle."
That's a major drawcard for Plested, who remains executive chairman of his global freighting firm and owns two properties on Waiheke. Placed at 62 on the 2008 National Business Review Rich List, with an estimated fortune of $140 million, he tries to get there most weekends.
He first visited the island about 60 years ago, bought a Palm Beach bach in 1980 and later built a modern beachfront home on his 280ha farm at Pie Melon Bay. He has been at the beachfront estate since before Christmas and is looking forward to weeks of "fishing, swimming, snorkelling and cleaning up" after a stream of visitors. "I love the lack of pollution and the lack of pace. It's more at peace with itself than the city."
Leitch says he starts feeling relaxed on the 45-minute car ferry trip from Auckland. He avoids Waiheke's rich and famous, preferring the RSA and bowling clubs for "good company", a drink or dinner.
Among the seriously wealthy, Leitch is in a minority in that respect.
- ADDITIONAL REPORTING: Cliff Taylor, Rebecca Lewis and Rebecca Milne
