By Cleo Fraser
Piracy accused Kim Dotcom's Auckland mansion will be opened to the public in November as part of a tour of luxurious properties to raise $120,000 for the local school.
Those willing to fork out $100 for a ticket for the Coatesville School fundraiser will be taken on a six-hour tour of 12 homes in Coatesville, 23 kilometres north of the city, where they can poke around the gardens and plush homes of the suburb's wealthy residents.
Event organiser Bridgette Jackson said the community had been in the spotlight since the Megaupload founder was arrested in January on a raft of internet piracy charges and an open-home fundraiser was a great way to exploit that.
"Rightly or wrongly Kim Dotcom has put Coatesville on the map," she said.
"People have varying opinions on Dotcom and we decided it's not a day for focusing on that, it's really a day to put all that aside and for people to come and enjoy themselves."
She hopes to raise $120,000 of which 10 percent will go to the Gynaecological Cancer Foundation.
The money will be used to buy computers and furniture and will go towards a hall for the decile-10 school.
Security will be tight at the Dotcom mansion where those on the tour will be shown about a quarter of the property, including the massive indoor fish tank and maze.
"People will see that the Dotcom's are just ordinary New Zealanders," Ms Jackson said.
"I think he and his family would like to be part of the community."
Dotcom, 38, and three co-accused face charges in the United States of copyright infringement, money laundering and racketeering.
An extradition hearing is set down for March next year.
NZN