Ralph Green and Letizia Columbano

Instead of think­ing about liv­ing the dream, Ral­ph Green and Let­iz­ia Colum­bano really are liv­ing it. With their son, the couple pur­chased the Green­mantle Estate Lodge in early 2012 as a coun­try home. But instead of keep­ing the breath­tak­ing estate all to them­selves, they have kindly decided to share it with the rest of the world, stra­tegic­ally mer­ging lux­ury liv­ing with work. As Green sug­gests, “It’s both a home and a busi­ness. We have both spent many years tele-work­ing so you have this idea of work­ing from home, but why not make the home work as well.” The couple let five of their six suites for vari­ous pur­poses: wed­dings, busi­ness meet­ings, func­tions and as a haven to those who wish to escape busy city life.

The impress­ive estate was built in 1942 by New Zea­l­and pho­to­graph­er Mar­ie Dean as a private home. It did not open as a lodge until 2000, when the build­ing was exten­ded from 180 to 900 square metres. The lodge has always had a col­our­ful his­tory: it has even been owned by a gen­tle­man who bred pea­cocks. It also served as a show garden, which included a hot­house for grow­ing roses for the Wel­ling­ton market.

The home is full of exquis­ite pieces col­lec­ted from New Zea­l­and and fur­ther afield. These include a large hunk of kauri gum rest­ing on the piano in the draw­ing room, an early Stew­art Dawsons antique clock and an ori­gin­al Chinese ances­tral painting.

The fam­ily din­ing room, which doubles as a guest eat­ing area, offers a spec­tac­u­lar set­ting, with its rich, deep purple col­our­ing con­trast­ing with a white bal­us­trade and Juliet bal­cony. The space is com­pli­men­ted by a sol­id oak din­ing table and match­ing chairs.

Among the more extra­vag­ant aspects of the home are the large out­door swim­ming pool, enorm­ous envi­able kit­chen, private gym and heli­copter land­ing pad. The couple also have their own park­ing space for private jets at Par­a­pa­raumu air­port. Colum­bano jok­ingly (or not so jok­ingly) says that she is still wait­ing for the day when George Clooney or Tom Cruise fly in to stay.

One of the couple’s favour­ite things about their home is the open­ness and air­i­ness that it provides through the large spa­cious liv­ing areas and the streams of light that pool through the many win­dows “It’s the sense of con­tinu­ous space and light that sort of cap­tures me all the time.”

How­ever, the cake-taker for Colum­bano is the estate’s extens­ive nīkau palm forest, which (includ­ing the neighbour’s sec­tion) the couple believe is the largest in the south­ern hemi­sphere. Nestled serenely amongst the tower­ing palms is an out­door spa bath where one can relax listen­ing to the song of nat­ive birds whilst breath­ing in the fresh air of the forest. What a life!