SEIZED BY THE BANK: This Wharekauhau home has been put up for mortgagee sale by Westpac after it was abandoned by its owner, US businessman and investment guru James Dale Davidson.

An American investment guru who abandoned his South Wairarapa mansion says New Zealand is run by "idiots" and only the insane would invest here.

James Dale Davidson's $1.6 million mansion on the Wharekauhau Lodge estate will be sold in a mortgagee sale after he stopped paying his bank, despite having funds in the United States.

"In my view, it was more important to pay my children's private tuition than the bank . . . so that was that," he said from his Florida home yesterday.

GOOD TIMES OVER: James Dale Davidson enjoyed relaxing and dining at the lodge and shopping in Martinborough and Greytown.

He blamed the mortgagee sale on a break-up with his second wife, Taciana, who he says was a former Miss Brazil.

"I made the mistake of marrying a woman I thought was in love with me but who wasn't," he said. "When she divorced me she took a lot of money."

But he believed New Zealand was also to blame, with its hostility towards rich foreigners making it a terrible investment prospect.

"I've made millions in Argentina. I've made millions in Peru. I went to Brazil and made millions . . . and I've gone to New Zealand and lost millions and millions. I think your country is run by idiots."

He claimed he lost $5m investing in New Zealand and still owed about $1m.

"I love the house, I love the place. I think New Zealand is a lovely place to live, but it's just not a place that you can make money."

Instead of putting up barriers, it should be focusing on becoming a wealthy "retirement haven", he said.

But Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce said he wouldn't be losing any sleep over Mr Davidson's investment opinions.

The World Bank ranked New Zealand as the third-easiest country in which to do business, and other wealthy people, such as Hollywood director James Cameron, had invested in Wairarapa and elsewhere quite happily, he said.

"But we are old-fashioned - we like people to pay their mortgages."

Mr Davidson's sprawling 623-square-metre six-bedroom house is designed to be rented out to high-rolling visitors for up to $1840 a night.

Former Wharekauhau guests include Jack Black, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Meg Ryan, the Rolling Stones and Bill Gates.

Mr Davidson became involved in the lodge in the late 1990s when he and a group of other investors bought into Annette and Bill Shaw's sheep farm in South Wairarapa, sinking millions of dollars into expanding its Wharekauhau Lodge.

However, Mr Davidson said the group had difficulty gaining resource consent for a further expansion, blocking much-needed international investment. When the global financial crisis broke in 2008, his businesses in New Zealand and the United States were hit hard.

The lodge was eventually sold in 2009 to another American, billionaire William P Foley, his business partner and its Kiwi managers, for $24m.

The property is being sold by Bayleys real estate, with tenders closing on September 18.

WHO IS JAMES DALE DAVIDSON?

An American investor and publisher of investment advice, who claims to have made millions investing in the United States and South America.

He has co-authored several books with William Rees-Mogg, former editor of The Times in London, including The Great Reckoning: Protecting Yourself in the Coming Depression.

He has been described as "very conservative politically and in his general nature, and very intelligent".

Former Finance Minister Sir Roger Douglas, a co-investor in Wharekauhau Lodge with Mr Davidson, described him as an interesting man, politically to the Right, with strong taxation views.