For a man whose work brings him into contact with billionaires, Jean-Michel Jefferson is refreshingly down-to-earth.
As he shows me around the family's Lauder property, which is the base for luxury travel business Ahipara, kunekune pig Tutu trots up for a scratch, then tags along.
A row of Red Band gumboots by the back door is further evidence the formerly Auckland-dwelling family has embraced the rural lifestyle.
From this 24ha property in Central Otago, Mr Jefferson masterminds a business which custom designs luxury holidays in New Zealand for clients around the globe.
His ''bread and butter'' clients spend $25,000-$50,000 on their one or two-week holiday, ''quite a few'' spend six figures and the most expensive holiday itinerary he arranged was about six years ago and cost the client $750,000.
''That was for 11 people, spending two weeks in the country and using two helicopters a day for two weeks quickly ramps up the cost.
Add to that seven or so rooms at an average $2000 per room ... and they were the first people to book the most expensive villa in the country - Rahimoana at Eagles Nest [Russell, Bay of Islands] at $40,000 a night. I advised the clients it was too expensive, but they said never mind.''
He declined to name the clients but their holiday experiences included a powhiri, a waka ''attack'' by Maori warriors on a private beach, ''heli-eeling'', tahr and chamois hunting, deer hunting, fly fishing, game fishing and diving for crayfish.
Unlike most other businesses in the luxury travel sector, Mr Jefferson says Ahipara focuses on ''extraordinary experiences'' and tailors holiday itineraries and experiences to the clients' interests.
''There's nothing off-the-shelf about this. The traditional way is to plan a package and then sell it to the client but this is more complicated.
"You have to understand what their passions are, then work out how to blow their socks off. You have to put the legwork in and get close to the people who will be hosting the visitors - it's all about relationships.
''Typically, the clients are here for 10 to 14 days, which is not a lot of time to get people below the surface in this country but we're putting people in touch with the real New Zealand and every itinerary is different.''
About 30% of his clients are from Russia and Eastern Europe, 30% from North America, 30% from Western Europe and the remaining 10% from South America and the rest of the world. A typical budget is $1000 a person per day.
''With the financial crisis, those booking top-end holidays still have plenty of money but they've stopped throwing it around so much.''
The business has a ''multimillion'' turnover which is growing annually.
''It's grown year on year on year, especially in the last few years, since our mention in Conde Nast [Traveler magazine, which named him as a top travel specialist for the past two years].''
Turnover increased by 80% last year and would increase by 100% this year, Mr Jefferson said. Although some of his clients are ''household names'', most are business people and ''multi-generation'' holidays are becoming more popular, he says.
''Our busy time is Christmas and New Year, and that's when the multigeneration travellers want their trip of a lifetime, so we'll get groups with grandparents in their 70s, their children who are in their 40s and 50s and grandchildren, aged from 10 to 20.
''From December 20 to January 10 it's absolute madness but as long as the clients go home happy, we're happy.''
Ahipara employs nine staff - a couple of full-timers, including Mr Jefferson and his wife Karen, and the rest are part-timers. Otago destinations often feature in the itineraries and sometimes clients enjoy spending a night in a musterer's hut as well as luxury lodges.
''How farms work really interests them. We had a Russian billionaire, for example, who went and shore a sheep at Glen Dene Station [at Hawea].''
Mr Jefferson grew up in North Africa and the Middle East, as his father was a diplomat. Mr Jefferson worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers for a decade, mostly in Russia, as a management consultant and aviation strategist.
He met his wife overseas and the couple moved to her home city, Auckland, after they started a family.
Struggling to get a job interview in New Zealand, despite speaking three languages and having two degrees and working at PwC, he decided to set up Ahipara. Three years ago, the Jeffersons acted on a yearning to go ''rural''. Mrs Jefferson spotted a magazine article about Lauderdale Estate, visited the place and fell in love with it.
''We thought let's rent a place down here for six months and see if we were being realistic or romantic but quickly decided this is absolutely us, negotiated a price for Lauderdale and that was it,'' he said.
She says it was meant to happen - ''everything just fell into place and the business can be run from anywhere''.
The property, originally part of Lauder Station, was already established as a wedding venue by former owners Karen and David Smythe.
It features the remnants of the homestead, damaged by fire in the 1890s, and several other historic farm buildings, constructed of schist, are dotted around the estate.
The Jeffersons and their children Josephine (15), Catharina (13), Louis (11) and Celina (10) live in a mud-brick homestead on the property built more than a century ago to replace the one damaged by fire.
Although the family had no links to Central Otago when they shifted to the area, they certainly feel at home there.
''We'd only ever lived in cities but we wanted to be in the country, '' Mr Jefferson said.
Despite converting to rural living, they never planned to have any livestock on the place.
''Now we've got more than 30 of them ... chooks, ducks, a dog and cats, four alpacas, eight sheep, four Angora goats, four horses, 10 cows and two kunekune pigs.''
After guiding overseas tourists throughout the country on luxury vacations, you would think his own holidays, minus the ''frills'', would seem a bit tame.
''The luxury stuff is all work and even when I stay in the luxury lodges to test them, I'm always working, evaluating, talking strategies, activities etc.''
''My favourite holiday is renting a bach, like everyone else, and gathering seafood or going hunting ... no phone, no strategies, just family and this beautiful country.''
