The entrepreneurs who put Waiheke on the world tourism map are selling their luxury lodge on the island.
After launching Oneroa’s now-world famous and much-awarded Oyster Inn in 2012, hoteliers and hosts Andrew Glenn and Jonathan Rutherford Best built their Asian-influenced lodge Lantern House overlooking the bush and beach of Onetangi.
Not surprisingly, it too has garnered awards and international acclaim.
The three-bedroom retreat is being marketed by Ollie and Graham Wall to a select group of buyers and, said Graham Wall, is already attracting interest from Singapore, London and New York.
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While he won’t be drawn on likely sales price, Wall said: “We set the record for Waiheke house prices when we sold Te Rere Cove for $12.5 million two years ago, but only this month there’ve been sales over $10m and $11m.
“We trace the international sexiness of Waiheke to Andrew and Jonathan, they’re so connected.
“Lantern House is like something out of Architectural Digest, it’s truly international style. Many people have drawn parallels with the Aman resorts, the attention to the tiniest detail is exquisite.”
Jonathan Rutherford Best, left, and Andrew Glenn put Waiheke on the world travel map when they opened Oyster Inn in 2012. Photo / Babiche Martens
Seven years earlier, the pair had stopped to visit the island as part of an extended trip after quitting busy lives in London – Rutherford Best running some of Europe’s coolest events and parties, Glenn heading global public relations and marketing for Louis Vuitton. They stayed. Rutherford Best is a Kiwi, Glenn grew up in Hong Kong but his dad is a Kiwi too.
Oyster Inn, the restaurant and boutique hotel that enticed cool people from around the world to visit the island, helped Waiheke make the Conde Nast Traveller magazine – the bible of luxury travel – list of top islands in the world in 2015, and it’s still on the 2021 list. Vogue magazine named it “the Hamptons of New Zealand”; the prince of cool Tyler Brule, editor of Monocle magazine, raved about it in London’s Financial Times.
The house, designed by Herbst Architects, has won architecture and design awards. Photo / Supplied
Oyster Inn picked up buckets of awards, and Lantern House in its turn has picked up architectural awards, including best interior for HOME magazine Home of the Year and a top prize at the NZ Institute of Architects Awards, as well as numerous magazine features.
Rutherford Best was on the board of the island’s premier Sculpture on the Gulf event, and while the pair hosted must-have events, they also made Oyster Inn a friendly hang-out for locals.
But the pair have what they call a “huge life” outside of New Zealand, including consulting on restaurant start-ups in Bali and Mexico and renovating a house in the French Alps.
Lantern House was modelled on international resorts like the Aman resorts, and has spectacular views. Photo / Supplied
Glenn told OneRoof: “We love doing projects. Oyster Inn was an amazing journey, but we’ve got itchy feet for a new project. There’ll be opportunity for cautious travel next year and Covid made us realise we have friends around the world we want to catch up.”
Before they’d even bought land, the pair knew who they would hire to design their retreat.
“We’d seen a project of Nicola and Lance Herbst’s in 2009, back before we even had the business here,” said Glenn.
“When we first met them, we were so excited, at that point we didn’t even have the land. We brought Lance over and he could see what a beautiful place it is,” Rutherford Best added.
When they bought the land on Seaview Road in 2011, a sloping site tucked into bush with a breath-taking view of the sea, the Herbsts had the bones of a plan sketched out within an hour.
The two-year build was not without the usual Waiheke delays, but the architects got the brief, picking up the cues from the pair’s favourite architecture of Asia’s luxury Aman resorts to create the two-level house using timber battens and Asian-style courtyards in a Kiwi way.
The architects skipped the usual big decks to instead using huge picture windows to frame the views right across to Carey Bay (“thanks to Bruce Plested, our view is uninterrupted native bush,” said Rutherford Best). On the lee-ward side of the house, walls of glass slide open to a courtyard, complete with contemplative pool and circular moon window that frames more views (and, cunningly, also fences the pool).
The three-bedroom house has been let as a luxury lodge when the owners are not in residence. Photo / Supplied
And, as you’d expect from people who know how to create luxury mood, details like retractable insect screens (“our James Bond push button moment”), opulent materials of marble, granite, and teak, indoor and outdoor fireplaces mean the house captures the sanctuary mood the pair had hoped for, complete with the open pavilion-living sheltered by the courtyard for outdoor living through most of the year.
With a master bedroom on the main floor, and two more ensuite bedrooms on the upper floor with their own entrance, the house works well for extended stays from family and friends. Practical under-pinning includes central heat and air-con, electronic curtains, a state-of-the-art kitchen with Falcon range, and an outdoor barbecue.
The tree-top house was intended as a sanctuary for the couple from their full-on hospitality business – now sold to MasterChef judge and hospo icon Josh Emmett and his wife Helen – but they also rent it as a holiday destination, with Aucklanders taking advantage of the $1395-a-night luxury rates while foreign tourists can’t come.
“It was wonderful to do this creating, it’s been a love story to Auckland and made us realise how lucky we are here, the bird life, the spectacular view. It’s a jewel box,” said Rutherford Best.
Wall adds: “It’s a cliché to say it, but when people walk in a look at that view, it really does take your breath away. It is the most exquisite place on earth.”
