High net worth individuals find bolthole in New Zealand

Washington

WHEN Hong Kong-based financier Michael Nock wanted a place to escape in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, he looked beyond the traditional havens of the rich to a land at the edge of the world, where cows outnumber people two to one.

Mr Nock, the founder of hedge fund firm Doric Capital Corp, bought a retreat 9,334 km away in New Zealand's picturesque Queenstown. In the seven years since, terror threats in Europe and political uncertainty from Britain to the US have helped make the South Pacific nation - a day by air away from New York or London - a popular bolthole for the mega wealthy.

Isolation has long been considered New Zealand's Achilles heel. That remoteness is turning into an advantage, however, with hedge fund pioneer Julian Robertson to Russian steel titan Alexander Abramov and Hollywood director Jame…