Serene, owned by Russian vodka tycoon Yuri Schefler, is longer than a rugby field and is within the biggest dozen privately owned superyachts now afloat.
Asia Pacific Superyachts NZ has arranged the visit and is providing services for it while it is here, and managing director Duthie Lidgard said the $423 million Serene is the biggest superyacht to visit this country.
Details from yacht charter websites show the vessel has a helicopter hangar, two helipads and a submarine hangar. There is an underwater viewing space and the vessel has 12 luxurious staterooms for 24 guests who are tended by up to 52 crew.
The owner's suite boasts an exterior hot tub on its terrace. This stateroom has a centred oversize California King bed, full walk-in dressing area and spacious ensuite bathroom. It has its own lift which links to a "sea cabin" on deck two, with a private swim platform.
Behind the owner's suite is a salon, lounge bar and library with a fireplace.
There's an internal seawater swimming pool, a hot and a cold jacuzzi plus jet stream swimming pool on the sundeck.
The vessel -- more than three times as long as Fuller's biggest ferry in Auckland -- also has a cinema, library and an indoor climbing wall for kids.
According to supermoney.com, Serene last year was the fifth-most expensive superyacht afloat, costing US$330 million to build.
It is more expensive and 15m longer than superyacht "A" -- also owned by a super-rich Russian -- which attracted intense interest when it visited last summer.
Asia Pacific Superyachts NZ provided support for A and the firm's founding director, Jeanette Tobin, said getting such a high-profile vessel here was a coup for the superyacht support industry and luxury tourism. Serene is coming here after the yacht's managers spoke to their counterparts on A.
It is not known whether Schefler will be aboard because Serene can be chartered. Basic charter rates for Serene start at 1.6 million euros (NZ$2.4m) a week. Last August Microsoft founder Bill Gates and family were spotted off Sardinia after hiring the boat for a week.
Ms Tobin said spending by the party and crew during the visit would be "huge" -- into the millions of dollars. It is likely to cruise around the coast but spend some time in Auckland.
Other superyacht owners who visit enjoy the relaxed lifestyle and quintessentially Kiwi pastimes such as hunting and fishing, said Ms Tobin.
She has been offering concierge services to superyachts for the past 12 years and said the tourism side of the business had boomed in the past year.
The Grand Cayman Islands-flagged Serene was built in Italy and launched in 2011. It reportedly took three years to build.
Serene is berthing in the Wynard Quarter area.
Ms Tobin said the busy Auckland Anniversary Weekend, Seafood Festival and busy cruise ship season created challenges finding space for the 8200-gross tonne vessel, which makes a splash wherever it arrives around the world.
Serene is about 18m longer than the latest and biggest superyacht New Zealand billionaire Graeme Hart has ordered from a shipyard in Norway.
By Grant Bradley of the New Zealand Herald
