FEATURE
Rugged Beauty, Quiet Luxury
Few places linger long after you leave. Enter Rosewood Cape Kidnappers. From our arrival to the final frame, this shoot was a celebration of contrasts: rugged cliffs, working farmland and curated elegance. What unfolded was a story of place, purpose, and presence.
Rosewood Cape Kidnappers. It’s a place of wonder. Of countryside charm. Of ecological stewardship.
A thriving farm and a wildlife sanctuary, here guests are treated to the harmony of rural life and nature’s bounty with a grand emphasis on Rosewood’s commitment to preservation, all wrapped up in the beauty and the splendour of a luxury stay. It’s nothing short of remarkable. And it was our absolute pleasure to capture this property in all its glory.
There’s a certain stillness you feel standing on the edge of Cape Kidnappers. It’s not silence exactly, rather a layered pause that comes when wildness and refinement meet. In November 2024, Jagat returned to Rosewood Cape Kidnappers, a place that never plays the same note twice. This was our second time filming here, and yet the landscape, the people, the pace… well, it all felt brand new.
We came to capture the stories: from sunset-lit ridgelines and the wide sweep of Hawke’s Bay to sheepdogs at work, winemakers at play, and a private sanctuary pulsing with ecological intent. The assignment was to document not just a place, but a way of being. It’s something Rosewood understands innately
Cape Kidnappers unfolds across 6,000 rolling acres, and honestly you can feel the scale in your chest. We began with the aerials, chasing early light and late afternoons across the cliffs and coastline, the drone revealing a rugged terrain that’s equal parts cinematic and sacred. The boundless horizon was always going to be our opening. It’s the first thing guests see and the last thing they forget.
Our shoot pivoted to Cape Sanctuary, New Zealand’s largest privately funded conservation project, and perhaps its most poetic. We filmed the landscape from multiple angles, tracing predator-proof fencing and the untouched quiet of takahe habitat. Coupled with the on-property wild bird feeding where guests can feed the endangered kaka their daily supplementary feed of nectar, fruit and vegetables, it’s a reminder that real luxury includes legacy. That ecology isn’t an afterthought, but the blueprint.
With the sanctuary’s narrative captured, we filmed scenes from the working farm: sheep herding at golden hour, guests wide-eyed, farmers perfectly at ease with their daily role. It’s in these human, unguarded moments where it’s easy to see that there’s something deeply grounding about the way the land is worked here. About the respect the staff have for it, and the guests, in turn, learn to mirror.
Food and wine are where that respect is translated into texture. At Loggia Restaurant, the paddock-to-plate menu is a masterclass. It’s perfect in every sense of the word (the melt in your mouth lamb an absolute highlight). From there, we moved to the heart of the lodge: the villa and suites, and put simply there’s an ease to the architecture, it’s luxurious without pretension.
There are things a camera can’t quite hold: the scent of rain on dry grass, the way gannets rise in waves at the cliff’s edge. But we tried. In every frame, we looked for the truth of this place, not just its beauty, but its balance.
For us, Rosewood Cape Kidnappers is more than a destination, it’s what hospitality can be when it serves something greater. It was a privilege to film here, and an even greater privilege to feel, once again, the deep pulse of the land beneath our feet. Until next time.
