New Zealand couple gift pristine land worth millions to the nation

Dick and Jillian Jardine said they hope the land will be preserved for all of New Zealand to “enjoy and appreciate”.

A couple is set to give 900 acres of property near Lake Wakatipu to the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust. (Getty Images)

A New Zealand couple is gifting 900 hectares of pristine land worth millions to the crown in hopes of seeing the property preserved for all to “enjoy and appreciate” for years to come.

Situated at the base of the Remarkables range near Lake Wakatipu, the land has been owned by Dick and Jillian Jardine’s family for 98 years. 

Now, however, the couple has decided that come 2022, the family’s 100th year of ownership, they will hand over the property to the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust.

"We thought about this idea and it just stuck so it feels like the right thing to do," Dick Jardine told The New Zealand Herland.

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Noting that the couple had received numerous offers from developers, Jardine said the couple decided they wanted to ensure the land would be kept “as it is forever”.

“We don't want buildings all over it or housing, there's so much housing going in around we want to be part of saving something,” he said.

Jardine said he and his wife had been weighing the decision for at least four years.

“We have endeavoured to improve and enhance it over this time,” he said.

"Having QEII as the caretaker of this property gives us the comfort and assurance to proudly pass over this gift for all New Zealand to enjoy and appreciate."

In a statement, the trust said the gift was “hugely significant for the Wakatipu area and wider New Zealand".

“Open landscapes in the Wakatipu basin have come under increasing pressure from subdivision and commercial development driven by the twin pressures of population growth and tourism," Bruce Wills, the trust’s chair, said.

“But the wide-open landscapes of the district are the very values that have attracted both tourists and new residents to the area," he said.

The gifted property is freehold land and it is currently being leased as a working farm. 

According to local media, it is worth millions of dollars.

The central lakes region it is situated in is known as one of the wealthiest parts of New Zealand, with prominent figures including PayPal founder Peter Thiel,  owning property there.