SOURCE NZ Herald
5.00AM Sunday October 14, 2007
By Maria Slade

Ralph Norris

Former Air New Zealand boss Ralph Norris has paid $6.5m for a holiday hideaway on Waiheke Island.

But the corporate high flyer, who earned $7.7m in the last financial year as chief executive of Commonwealth Bank of Australia, has apparently got himself a bargain.

The 8.6ha property with its own private bay was valued by the Auckland City Council in July 2005 at $7.5m. It is understood to have been on the market for around 16 months before Norris and his wife Pamela bought it three months ago.

The land encompasses picture-perfect Pasadena Bay at the extreme eastern end of Waiheke. Easiest access to the modest home is by boat, to the private jetty, or by helicopter. The property is covered in lush gardens and native bush, including kauri and nikau trees. There is another cottage on the land, and a boatshed.

The island sanctuary had been owned by the Snedden family of Auckland since 1927. Entries in the cottage’s visitors’ book date back to 1929 and reportedly include the names of some of Auckland’s most prominent families. The home is understood to have been restored.

The deal had been kept under wraps, with real estate agents involved in the sale signing a confidentiality agreement.

After three years at the helm of Air New Zealand, Norris moved to Sydney in 2005 to take up his new job as head of Australia’s largest domestic bank. CBA is about five times bigger than Telecom, the largest company on the New Zealand stock exchange.

The move represented a substantial pay rise for Norris, who earned between $1.25 million and $1.26 million in his last year with the national carrier.

The Norrises also still own a home in Epsom, Auckland. At the time of his departure for Sydney, Norris said he did not yet know if he would retire to New Zealand.

Estate agents on the island, site of holiday homes for many of Auckland’s well heeled, say that those selling costly properties now had to be “more realistic” about the prices they expected.