Environmentalists argue Peter Thiel’s luxury NZ lodge will ‘destroy’ lake landscape

Billionaire PayPal co-founder is planning a luxury home on 190-hectare property on shores of Lake Wanaka

Billionaire Peter Thiel is facing opposition from New Zealand environmental groups over his plans to build a luxury lodge in Wnaka, an alpine town on the South Island.

A company owned by Thiel had lodged a consent application for a sprawling lodge on his property, which would include a pod" for the owner himself, water features and meditation space. The consent describes a series of stand-alone buildings, including a lodge for visitor accommodation for up to 24 guests, accommodation pod for the owner, together with associated lodge management buildings, infrastructure, landscape treatment, water features and meditation space". The earthworks required to build it would cover over 73,700m^2 of land.