One of New Zealand's best known movie locations has been sold.
The 257 hectare Arcadia Station in Paradise Valley, near Glenorchy, has played host to some of Hollywood's biggest blockbusters, including Sir Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films.
The location, which was described by Sir Ian McKellen, who played Gandalf in the Rings movies, as "perhaps my favourite spot", was sold for a multi-million dollar sum just before the Covid-19 lockdown.
Ray White Queenstown owner and agent Bas Smith says the farm had attracted interest from “super high-net worth” buyers from around the world, including several American and European billionaires and large corporate entities, but was purchased by a Kiwi.
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The buyer, a Queenstown businessman and farmer, was one of the first people to view the property after it was put on the market. “He is a collector of iconic New Zealand properties,” Mr Smith said, adding that the buyer plans to keep the property as a working farm and intends to restore the homestead.
The property had a a price guide of between $15 million and $20 million.
“Arcadia actually helped put Queenstown on the map as a tourist mecca long ago as it was the place wealthy travellers came to stay and relax back in the early 1900s. The name literally means Paradise, it has a 1.4km border to Diamond Lake the rest to Mount Aspiring National Park, ” Mr Smith said from the isolation of his home in Queenstown.
Smith said the property has been farmed for more than 80 years by the same family, with the vendor, Jim Veint, buying the property off father Lloyd in 1960.
“[Jim] has lived there his entire life, that's why he is still so young and vibrant. At 83 he is as fit as a fiddle, still working the farm, opening all the gates and tending to his stock but he recently accepted that it was time to sell,” Smith said.
“We ended up doing the deal over 48 hours on the eve of the lockdown. Jim is very happy with the result in the knowledge the property has been presented to the world over the summer which gave him comfort that he was dealing with the best buyer in the market.”
Mr Veint has been invited by the new owner to stay around and advise on the new management plan alongside the renovation of the historic 114-year-old homestead.
