Austrians above Westhaven Inlet

A project on a scale that could only be envisaged by a former international steel mill project manager and x fighter jet pilot, is underway in one of the wildest and most remote corners of New Zealand.

Austrian immigrant Bruno Stompe fell in love with the rugged South Head Peninsula overlooking the entrance to Golden Bay's Westhaven Inlet, 17 years ago. Thriving on physical and logistical challenges, he is working tirelessly to create, with the help of his family, a vast scale luxury lodge.

His elegant and cultured wife, Monica, resigned herself to following him to this remote spot on the planet, only after a guarantee that they would find a way to encourage people to their doorstep.

Together with their daughter and then also a son in law who arrived as a woofer from the Czech Republic, and now a young grandson, the close knit family are creating their unique gargantuan dream.

The scale of the project may be slightly mind boggling to locals, but is nothing to a man who has worked a lifetime on huge scale steel plants throughout the world. Despite a reluctance to go into detail, it is obvious that this Austrian, like others before him, has been drawn to nuclear free New Zealand as a last frontier and an escape from the insecurities and potential dangers of a highly industrialized Europe.