Hollywood stars flock to ‘apocalypse-proof’ house in New Zealand

A secluded estate on a New Zealand island has hit the market for the first time in 45 years. 

The homestead may look peaceful, but it has a turbulent history. 

In the early 1960s, Maurine and Robert Rothschild set off from New York on a journey to the South Pacific. 

It was at the height of the Cold War. The Cuban Missile Crisis was on everybody’s minds, and the world appeared to be on the brink of nuclear war. 

Many Americans believed there could be a better chance of survival in the Southern Hemisphere, out of firing range of the main global superpowers. 

This was the plot of the 1959 Hollywood film On the Beach, infamously set in a post-apocalyptic Melbourne.

It was this Cold War anxiety that motivated the Rothschilds to purchase an estate on Waiheke Island, New Zealand. 

“My parents thought of finding a safe haven from what might develop into World War III. At the time, nuclear war may have seemed ‘escapable’ in the Southern Hemisphere,” the couple’s son, Peter Rothschild, told The New Zealand Herald in 2014. 

Thankfully, the fear of World War III did not eventuate. 

The Rothschilds bought a retreat on the island in 1963. A few decades later, they acquired a Victorian homestead down the road with a private beach. 

The couple purchased the 19th-century property off NASA consultant John Bollard and his wife Eve, who had restored the historic villa in the 1980s. 

Now, the house at 40 Rothschild Terrace is back on the market for the first time in nearly half a century. 

The sellers are members of the Bollard family, who inherited the property in 2014, according to OneRoof.

Agent Caleb Paterson told OneRoof the property has attracted interest from two Hollywood stars. 

However, he stated he has signed non-disclosure agreements that prevent him from revealing the stars’ identities. 

40 Rothschild Terrace is a four-bedroom homestead with a white weatherboard facade and red tin roof. 

The house sits on 4.9 hectares of waterfront land overlooking the Haruki Gulf. 

If that’s not enough, there are also two private islands included in the sale. 

It is possible to walk across the bay to the islands at low tide.The property is being sold without a public price guide. It has a registered value of $NZ6.4 million ($5.5 million).