KEY POINTS:
Lavishly gilded furniture and fittings from a Sultan-of-Brunei-style makeover in a stately Auckland mansion will be auctioned next Sunday.
The new Kiwi owners have indicated they want to install their own personal taste in the multi-million dollar property.
The auction, run by Webbs, will mark the end of an era for Wairangi, a gracious two-storey Herne Bay villa, which along with 10 other properties in the sought-after Auckland suburb, was originally bought by the Sultan of Brunei's "playboy" brother, Prince Jefri, in 1996.
The prince's advisers spent an estimated $500,000 refurbishing the house 12 years ago in what an observer said was a "dated 1980s Asian style" - plenty of golden gilt frames, reproduction French empire furniture, chandeliers, gilt-edged mirrors and prints, and carpet threaded with gold, specially made in Dubai.
The entire lot is going under the hammer, including the concrete pineapple-shaped planters and the impressive sound system, complete with karaoke machine.
Not that the gold-threaded carpet and karaoke machine have had much use. Prince Jefri, now married to former New Zealand model Claire Kelly, his fifth wife, has stayed at Wairangi only once.
He stayed the night but left the following morning complaining that the almost inaudible air conditioning system was too noisy.
When the Sultan of Brunei took issue with billions of dollars he alleged Prince Jefri embezzled from the Brunei Investment Authority, the property ownership returned to Brunei.
Millionaire rich lister Gary Lane bought the Sultan's Herne Bay property portfolio in 2005, including Wairangi, for $35 million.
Lane's interest was in another of the Sultan's mansions, Waimanu in nearby Stack St, but he was forced to buy the entire portfolio to get it.
Since then the properties have been on the market or leased out. After languishing on the market for two years, Wairangi's $10m price tag was slashed by $1m last year.
A young Auckland business couple, believed to have paid $8m for the property, have indicated they are not interested in salvaging any of the chattels from the sale.
The clifftop property overlooks the harbour, has a private beach below and a 20m swimming pool.
Lane's property caretaker, Dion (who asked for his surname not to be used), has looked after the properties for a decade. He never met the Sultan, apparently because Wairangi wasn't secure enough for him to stay.
The Sultan was forced to leave his personal bodyguards' firearms at the airport and, as he had no armed escort, he decided to stay at the Hilton Hotel during his visits to Auckland, Dion said.
Wairangi was mostly unoccupied with its ornate furniture covered in sheets, he said. Housekeepers and gardeners kept the house and grounds immaculate as the property had to be kept ready in case it was needed, sometimes at short notice, for the Sultan's personal staff and advisers.
"Basically, because they fly their own private jets around the world and don't tell anyone what they are doing or where they are going, the place had to be prepared just in case they land and said, 'we will be here in two hours'. So you just had to put the milk in the fridge and it was ready to go."
Occasionally Wairangi was rented out, for an impressive $10,000 a week, to the likes of Rachel Hunter and the family of the owner of the One World America's Cup syndicate.
Nowadays the rent would be closer to $20,000, Dion said.
Webbs' general manager Neil Campbell said virtually everything in the house, including the drapes and the entire kitchen, would be sold with no reserves. The carpets alone would have cost $80,000. If few bidders turned up, Campbell said, someone could buy the whole lot "for a dollar".
