Grand tour of New Zealand’s Luxury Lodges
Living it up in New Zealand!
We are thrilled to have been featured in the February 2019 edition of Town and Country Magazine in which Klara Glowczewska reveals a collection of alluring treasures that draw visitors to our shores from across the globe; breathtaking natural beauty, genuinely welcoming locals, an endless array of unique experiences and some of the finest accommodation on the planet.
Excerpt from the article about New Zealand’s Luxury Lodges:
“I have come to see for myself what makes this place such a magnet…(a) journey of discovery across the country’s North and South islands: 12 days in six lodges and a villa, taking three domestic flights and half a dozen helicopter rides (it’s how one rolls when one is dealing with some of the world’s most varied and extreme terrain).
Huka, in the North Island’s central Lake Taupo region, has launched many a love affair with New Zealand. Its guest books date back almost 90 years and are filled with the names of “the ordinary, the wealthy, the titled, the celebrated, and the distinguished of many countries.”..The understated, down-to-earth luxury of the “cottage” and its cocooning seclusion suggest a kind of Platonic ideal of, well, home.
Cape Kidnappers, on the North Island’s Hawke’s Bay, where I head next, .. (is) 6,000 acres of undulating pastureland and forest atop craggy sea cliffs, one of which is home to the world’s largest mainland colony of gannets. It’s trophy real estate on steroids. He (Julian Robertson) used part of the property to build a state-of-the-art 22-suite lodge and a world-renowned Tom Doak golf course…In addition he was instrumental in creating the 6,177-acre Cape Sanctuary to restore and protect endangered native flora and fauna.
The endless view from the terrace of the Penthouse at Eichardt’s, where we stay in Queenstown, looks make-believe: a strip of white sand beach, the intense blue of the 50-mile-long Lake Wakatipu (of Lord of the Rings movie fame), and all around and into the distance, as if -cradling the lake and delineated with startling crispness, the jagged mountains aptly called the Remarkables.
Minaret Station, probably New Zealand’s most unique lodge. It’s just four chalets on the slope of a vast glacial valley in the Southern Alps, the largest range on the South Island, and the only way in and out is by helicopter. I’ve come here for what I have long heard is its special brand of high country thrills..
Helena Bay’s atmosphere is more shipshape than Kiwi-convivial. (I was asked to sign a nondisclosure agreement protecting the identities of the other guests.) All the same, its 800 acres and four beaches are strikingly beautiful: bright green hills that recall Scotland or Yorkshire, a patch of forest lit with glowworms, and mysterious humplike remnants of old Maori pa sites, fortified lookouts facing the Pacific.
the Landing, 1,000 acres of rolling hills with farmland, a nature reserve, a vineyard, five beaches, and four private, staffed villas.(Ours is called Vineyard Villa, and our “guest service manager,” Laura Moreno, used to be a sort of in-flight concierge for Princess Diana and her boys.) The Bay of Islands, which it overlooks, is both a water sports heaven—100 square miles of inlets, peninsulas, and 144 islands—and a rich repository for the early histories of both the Maori (the Landing has 43 registered Maori archaeological sites) and Europeans ..
Kauri Cliffs …(a) 6,000-acre farm and golfing property—which includes protected land beaches with traces of kaingas, or Maori fishing villages; plants used in traditional medicine; forest paths where silver ferns grow; and, shooting up into the sky, giant kauri trees
Follow Klara’s adventures here or contact us to follow in her footsteps, visiting some of New Zealand’s luxury lodges including Huka Lodge, the Farm at Cape Kidnappers, the Vineyard Villa at the Landing Residences, the Penthouse at Eichardts, Minaret Station, Helena Bay and Kauri Cliffs.
Read on for more New Zealand Luxury Lodge inspiration
