Swiss millionaire Dabbah buys up the Bay

The Swiss millionaire owns 26.9ha of Mataka Station. Photo / Supplied

He might be pint-sized but Maurice Dabbah has a big cheque book and one of the world's most beautiful women at his side.

The multi-millionaire Swiss businessman, whose girlfriend is former Playboy playmate Victoria Silvstedt, has just paid $2 million for a 26.9ha block of Mataka Station on the Purerua Peninsula north west of Kerikeri in the Bay of Islands.

Dabbah is regularly photographed holidaying on the French Riviera with Silvstedt, a Swedish beauty queen named Hugh Hefner's 1997 Playmate of the year.

The land he has bought does not have a house on it but the purchase gives him access to the station's 1148ha of a fully operational farm, five beaches, a boat ramp and boat lodge.

Mataka has won awards for its conservation values.

Dabbah joins a long line of wealthy people who have bought expensive property in the Bay of Islands.

Phantom of the Opera star Michael Crawford's Russell hideaway has a valuation of $2.65m, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa has property at Rawhiti Peninsula 15km from Russell and Sky TV founder Craig Heatley owns part of Moturoa Island.

American author and big game fisherman Zane Grey put the region on the map as a millionaire's paradise back in the 1930s.

The scale of Dabbah's investment is dwarfed by a four-bedroom Russell mansion being marketed by Southeby's International Realty. It comes with a price tag of US$37.5m - a whopping $50.9m.

Called Rahimoana at Eagles Nest it includes a 25m infinity pool, billiards room, a 1km long private beach and a deep water anchorage.

Far North Mayor Wayne Brown said, "I don't mind who owns it, the issue is that they shouldn't be able to buy it and lock us out of the beaches. That's been a problem for 30 years," he said.

When properties were subdivided the council ensured beach access was included in the plans but that wasn't possible with larger blocks sales.

The Overseas Investment Office approved the purchase, saying Dabbah would offer special land foreshore to the Crown and agreed to sponsor a kiwi research programme at the station.