Why 2000 hectares is the new benchmark in high-end travel

by · Australian Financial Review

Kaila Yu
Sep 12, 2026 – 5.00am

At sunrise at Rosewood Cape Kidnappers, you can hike for hours over grassy hills, across sheep pastures and along sheer limestone cliffs without encountering another guest. With just 22 suites plus a four-bedroom villa, the luxury lodge is set in 2400 hectares of private land in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand. Here guests share the landscape with flightless kiwi, critically endangered takahē, kākā (a large parrot) and the world’s biggest mainland gannet colony.

Increasingly, privacy and solitude are luxury travel’s most aspirational amenities. Rather than thread counts, butlers, Michelin stars or celebrity chefs, a new breed of high-end hotels is selling the promise of an almost absurd acreage per guest.

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