Owen River Lodge's founder and owner, Felix Borenstein.
Owen River Lodge's founder and owner, Felix Borenstein.
One of New Zealand’s top fishing lodges has been sold to a global operator of high-end off-grid properties.
Eleven has bought Owen River Lodge, which is a 90-minute drive from Nelson and has been described as the country’s most internationally famous bucket-list angling destination that few Kiwis know about.
FelixBorenstein founded the lodge in 2003 and said he had approached Eleven about a year ago to see if the firm was interested in his business, where guides take guests to what are regarded as some of the best brown trout fishing spots in the world.
“It’s been 20 years of my life, and with the help of a fantastic group of people, [we] developed a world-class facility. It is incredibly intense and I love what I do, but it has been 20 years and I’m 63, and there are lots of places in the world that I want to go and see.”
He said “yes” when asked if he got a good price for the lodge, whose 16 staff will stay on under new owners.
“Will I be flying first-class around the world? No, I’ll probably fly business class, more than likely,” said Borenstein, who will consult with the lodge operators.
Two years ago, the Herald reported Borenstein took the plunge into the lodge after narrowly averting financial disaster when his Australian-based IT business collapsed in a Dot.com meltdown in 2001.
During those immensely stressful times, he saw an episode of a television show called A River Somewhere, which focused on the D’Urville River and Lake Rotoroa Lodge in New Zealand’s Nelson Lakes National Park.
“I booked my first fly-fishing trip to Lake Rotoroa Lodge, and over the following five years, I made 21 trips from Melbourne to fly-fish there. I spent a whole season travelling around the South Island in 2002, fishing all the best spots on the West Coast and in McKenzie Country and Southland, trying to decide where I could establish my own lodge.”
Owen River Lodge is located alongside the Owen River in the Nelson region, near Murchison.
Six months later, he bought the property that became Owen River Lodge, nestled on the border of Kahurangi National Park on the Nelson side of Murchison. Transforming the “old and dumpy farmhouse and the weed-ridden land” took six months of renovations, designing and building six luxurious chalets and extensively landscaping the 6.4-hectare property, which included planting thousands of native trees, shrubs and flaxes.
What is now known as Eleven Owen River Lodge has won four consecutive Conde Nast Traveller Readers’ Choice awards. The lodge has six rooms and can accommodate up to 12 guests within three stand-alone duplex-style cottages which have views of the water, the valley and Kahurangi National Park, with the backdrop of the Owen River.
Guests can unwind by in the hot tub, or relax with a private treatment in the massage room.
A large number of river systems boasting “gin clear” water as well as the number of true trophy fish in nearly 30 fisheries make for excellent fishing.
Nightly rates start at $1973 to $3152 per person based on room occupancy and seasonal dates.
Borenstein said while guests included wealthy businesspeople and professionals from overseas, he knew of one local who stacked supermarket shelves to supplement income to treat themselves to a stay every year, and Kiwis had helped keep the business going when borders were closed during the pandemic and package rates were cut by 35 per cent.
For Eleven, Owen River Lodge becomes the 13th property in its portfolio and the second in New Zealand, joining Eleven Cedar Lodge beneath the Southern Alps near Mt Aspiring National Park, reputed for its heli-fishing.
Eleven off-the-grid properties are small and located in remote places, from a historic mountain hamlet along the French-Italian border and a pioneer-era mining town in the Colorado Rockies to the New Zealand properties and a remote farming valley in northern Iceland.
Eleven was founded by former Blackstone private equity executive Chad Pike, a keen fly-fisher.
Grant Bradley has been working at the Herald since 1993. He is the Business Herald’s deputy editor and covers aviation and tourism.
