A rare piece of property is up for sale on the Chatham Islands - but it comes with a catch.
The new owners of a remote lodge on Pitt Island will have a choice on whether to keep it a tourism business or turn it private.
Million-dollar views of the south Pacific Ocean are now up for grabs. Flowerpot Lodge is the only accommodation provider on Pitt Island and one of very few in the Chatham Islands altogether.
"Somebody that was maybe 20 years younger than us could grab this, whether they wanted to carry it on as a business or a retreat or private residence," Flowerpot Bay Lodge owner Brent Mallison says.
The six suite, seven-bathroom multi-story lodge has been used as a place to stay for a decade and with visitor numbers booming on the Chathams business has never been better.
"From now right through until April there will be someone here every night," Mallinson says.
Rooms are hard to come by so what happens next will have an impact on the entire Chatham Islands.
"I would hate to see this cease functioning as a tourist lodge but at the end of the day it is what it is," Mallinson says.
Selling property on the Chathams isn't easy.
Especially when it's a two-hour flight away, in the middle of the ocean.
"It's a pretty hard property to market, it's not like you can do an open home," Harcourts' Stephen Gregory-Hunt says.
With owners Brent and Bernadette heading for retirement - the question now is will it remain a tourism business or go into private hands?
"Doesn't come up very often, if at all. Most of the sales on the Island are done privately, within the island," Gregory-Hunt says.
It's a chance to become the 46th resident of Pitt Island but you'll need approval from the other locals too.
"Oh here's my pet seagull who has come in to see what we're up to. That's Jackie," one local said.
Keeping an eye whoever takes over this slice of paradise at the bottom of the world.
