His jet is in Wellington, so what could Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos be doing in New Zealand?

Friday, 21 February 2020

A jet owned by the world's richest man has touched down in Wellington, and while the presence of Jeff Bezos himself is yet to be confirmed there is plenty here that may attract the attention of the billionaire.

Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and chief executive.

Hanging out with Sir Peter

Sir Peter Jackson and Jeff Bezos could talk about their mutual interest in all thing Tolkien.

Sir Peter Jackson makes films. Jeff Bezos owns Amazon Prime, one of the world's biggest entertainment streaming service. And Amazon is even filming the new Lord of the Rings television series in Auckland this year. Surely Jeff and Peter will want to hang out and talk about hobbits.

Maybe or maybe not. Despite Sir Peter's name being nearly synonymous with all things Middle-earth, neither the director or any of his companies, such as Weta Digital, have been linked to new series. And it is happening in Auckland.

Neither Sir Peter nor Weta Digital were able to immediately confirm or deny hobnobbing with Bezos.

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Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos is rumoured to be in New Zealand after his private plane was spotted at Wellington Airport on Thursday. His Gulfstream G650ER jet, which seats eight and cost an estimated US$65 million (NZ$102m), touched down in the windy city, but it's not yet been confirmed if the 56-year-old businessman was on board.

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* Minister's meetings to keep Lord of the Rings in New Zealand**

Strong-arming in the Beehive

Film director and South Wairarapa resident James Cameron

While he might not be meeting with Sir Peter, Bezos could be meeting with government ministers and officials to discuss sweeteners for Amazon to keep filming in New Zealand.

Meetings of this type have already occurred between Amazon executives and government, and ministers seemed to have done enough for now to keep the Lord of the Rings series in the country.

But perhaps Amazonian feathers have been ruffled by the Government decision this month to ditch parts of the controversial 'Hobbit law', agreed between Sir Peter and then-Prime Minister John Key in 2010, and introduced stronger employment protection for film workers.

Bezos has been criticised for his approach to worker rights.

Hanging out with fellow explorer James Cameron

If Sir Peter is busy and the New Zealand Government is playing nice, Bezos could always head over the hill and hang-out with film director James Cameron at his South Wairarapa film.

The pair are both are members of exclusive New York Explorer's Clu b and share an enthusiasm for deep sea exploration.

Bezos has even taken one of the 'exoskeletons' from Cameron's blockbuster film Avatar for a spin.

I just got to pilot an awesome (and huge) robot thanks to Hankook Mirae Technology. Nice! #MARS2017 pic.twitter.com/MvN6ghEYFi

A Rocket Lab rocket takes off at Māhia Peninsular.

— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) March 20, 2017

However, despite many shared interests, Cameron told Stuff he didn't know Bezos and wasn't expecting a visit.

'Haven't a clue,' he said. 'Never met him.'

Checking out some rockets

Land near Wanaka owned by Peter Thiel, which used to be part of a pastoral lease.

Like other billionaires, Bezos likes to play with rockets.

The billionaire started the Blue Origin rocket company, which has a stated mission to create a ' future where millions of people are living and working in space'.

New Zealand has its own rocket company, Rocket Lab, based in Auckland and launching rockets at Māhia Peninsular, near Gisborne.

The companies don't directly compete, with Rocket Lab specialising in smaller payloads than Blue Origin, but perhaps Bezos is looking to expand.

A Rocket Lab spokeswoman said there were no meeting planned between Bezos and Rocket Lab.

She said she would call Stuff if any Bezos-looking characters were spied snooping around the launch site at Māhia.

Buying a piece of New Zealand

With a net worth of US$132b (NZ$208b) Bezos is worth nearly as much as New Zealand's entire gross domestic product, about US$200bn, for a year.

Maybe, like other billionaires before him, Bezos wants to buy his own slice of New Zealand, preferable a large one in which to wait out the apocalypse.

Fellow tech billionaire Peter Thiel could give him a few tips, although the pair have exchange harsh words in the past.