- Te Arai Lodge, featured on Grand Designs NZ, is for sale with high expectations.
- Owners Vince and Kathy Moores faced spiralling costs and mental health challenges during the build.
- The luxury lodge charges $8000 a night and offers panoramic views over the Mangawhai coast.
An Italian-style villa that appeared on the fourth series of Grand Designs New Zealand has hit the market for sale.
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Te Arai Lodge has an RV of just $4m but the owners and their listing agent, New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty’s Greg Dennerly, are aiming for a buyer willing to spend much more than that, with the six-bedroom mansion currently one of the most expensive for sale on OneRoof.
Vendors Vince and Kathy Moores battled spiralling costs and mental health woes during their mammoth project, which was one of the biggest and costliest to feature on Grand Designs NZ.
Owners Vince and Kathy Moores in front of their dream home. Photo / TVNZ
The couple spared no expense in their decor and design. Photo / Supplied
The ambitious build, on 2ha in Te Arai, near the Tara Iti and Te Arai Links golf courses, even had then TV host Chris Moller worried: “I just hope they get to enjoy it, and [they] don’t end up living in the shed.”
The Moores found themselves tested and living in cramped temporary living conditions as they willed their dream home into reality.
The couple, who met while travelling in Europe, were refreshingly honest about Vince’s battle with depression, which he said he fell into after losing his mother, their son’s hospitalisation and the global financial crisis.
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“I went into this really bad place where I couldn’t even get out of the house for a year, and unfortunately didn’t respond to medication,” he said on the show, which aired on TVNZ in 2018.
“We had to look at life differently,” Kathy said.
Te Arai lodge was inspired by the couple’s new-found appetite for a “simple life”. Their lodge, which charges guests $8000 a night during the high season, is centred around a giant atrium and cost them just under $5m to build – $3m than they had initially budgeted.
The Italian-style mansion sits on 2ha in in Te Arai, near the world-renowned Tara Iti and Te Arai Links golf courses. It costs up $8000 a night to stay there. Photo / Supplied
During the build, the pressure almost became too much, with Vince memorably tearing up in the show as he considered calling it quits.
“The last few months have been pretty tough,” he said during the show. “When I go into a bit of a dark place, I withdraw, like a lot of blokes do, I don’t talk about issues.
“I think there needs to be a greater understanding of mental health and how it affects people ... I don’t think a lot of people understand it because on the surface, hey we’re living the dream here.”
Dennerly’s listing on OneRoof highlights the luxury and tranquillity the estate offers. “Elevated on five acres within 20 acres of protected native forest, the property enjoys breathtaking panoramic views over rolling countryside to the Pacific Ocean and the white-sand beaches of the Mangawhai coast.”
The property, he said, can sleep up to 20 people across the main lodge, guest suites and the Ruru Barn.
Two of the homes that featured on the fourth season of Grand Designs NZ alongside Te Arai Lodge have been sold by their owners.
Britten Stables, which was lovingly restored by the daughter of Kiwi inventor John Britten after it was damaged in the Christchurch earthquake, sold for $7.85m – more than $4m above RV – in 2022, while Jetty House, in Mangawhai, fetched $4m under the hammer in 2020.
- 51 Lake Road, Te Arai, is for sale, tender closing November 20
