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| Executive Travel |
End of the Earth
Nancy Holmes
04/01/2004
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The desire for a break from his high-pressure financial career a
quarter-century ago led hedge fund legend Julian Robertson to drop it all and
steal away with his family to New Zealand on a trip that would leave him with an
abiding affection for the beautiful island nation. When he laid down the reins
of his financial juggernaut, the Tiger Fund, a few years ago, he decided to
return there with the purpose of developing a number of properties that now
serve as excellent venues for family or executive retreats.
 Robertson and his
wife, Josie, have built two world-class golf courses: The first, Kauri Cliffs,
is rated as one of the best courses in the world; and the second, Cape
Kidnappers, just opened for play in January. Both are on New Zealand’s North
Island, an ideal, unspoiled spot for recharging family or business
relationships. It boasts miles of pristine Pacific Ocean beaches, fishing, a
burgeoning wine industry, exceptional architecture and natural beauty that
recently lent its allure to native director Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings
trilogy. Yet New Zealand’s distance from other countries insulates it from the
deleterious effects of rampant tourism. Indeed, the country’s isolation counts
among the attributes that, at first, so intrigued Robertson.
Tiger’s Tale
The man who became the archetype of the wily risk-taking
hedge fund manager had already established himself as a senior financial
industry executive by the mid-1970s. Robertson ran Webster Management, the
investment advisory subsidiary of Kidder Peabody, an investment bank. However,
the many satisfactions of his financial career were not enough; he nursed the
ambition to be an author, and needed to find the right environment to give it a
try.
“I remembered what a friend had told me about New Zealand, how beautiful
and far away it was, and what a different world it was,” Robertson recalls. “I
had decided to write a novel, and New Zealand seemed like it might be a good
place to do that.” In 1978, he took his wife and their two sons with him to
write his novel.
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