New Zealand Riviera

To entice buyers to a resort development, Pip Cheshire and Terry Hunziker designed a rustic guest lodge Bay of Islands, a remote spot about 150 miles northeast of Auckland. Located in a part of the country known as the “winterless north”—temperatures average 83 degrees year-round—the low-key vacation destination attracts vacationers and residents with activities such as sailing, windsurfing, big-game fishing, and just taking in the magnificent landscape. Peter Cooper, a Kiwi-Californian who is part Maori, is one of many visitors to have fallen in love with Bay of Islands, so much so that he and his wife, Sue, purchased a 900-acre farm there and subdivided it into 10-acre residential parcels under the name Mountain Landing.