Billionaire tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel plans to build a luxury lodge overlooking Lake Wānaka.
Thiel and his husband Matt Danzeisen have lodged an application with the Queenstown Lakes District Council to build a complex on a 193ha owned by the couple for six years at Damper Bay about 10 minutes' drive from Wānaka.
The lodge is proposed to have 10 guest room, employ about 20 staff and has been designed by Tokyo Olympic Stadium architects Kengo Kuma and Associates, who have designed the lodge so the building merges into the landscape while still providing each guest room with uninterrupted north-facing views towards Lake Wānaka and the Southern Alps.
The consent also says the development would include accommodation for the owners.
Other facilities would include a reception, guest bedrooms, kitchens and dining rooms, a theatre, offices, a spa treatment room and meditation area.
Thiel was granted citizenship in 2011, despite only having spent 12 days in the country.
He is reported to have made about $US2.8 billion from his early investments in Facebook and PayPal.
