thanks for your input guys.
I think it is a new visa because I've not seen it on the website before until very recently. it's taken a while to get a firm answer out of NZIS about a few queries my parents had so I gather there haven't been too many cases before as we have been met with confusion everytime we've tried to ask a specific question. Anyway, we seem to be getting somewhere now and the Business and Investment dept of NZIS have been much more helpful as I suppose they know more about it so if anyone is thinking of doing this type of visa, we've had some very helpful answers from
BusinessEnquiries@dol.govt.nz.
It is a lot of money to part with and it's going to be a penny pinching few months for them to be able to come up with every last cent of it.
Well, they'll be getting their 'to do' lists sorted at the moment so I'll let you know the ins and outs as we get further with the application.