The unexpected challenges of a luxury lodge trip around New Zealand

When I travelled to New Zealand in autumn to visit a trio of Relais & Chateaux lodges, I was looking forward to blazing fireplaces, great cooking, delicious wines and garden walks.

I found all that, but as well as enjoying cosy country comforts, I also found myself way out of my comfort zone on a few nail-biting occasions.

I didn’t expect to be landing on a mountaintop glacier in a helicopter, shooting clay pigeons with a shotgun, enduring a teeth-rattling jet boat ride up a shallow river and zooming across a remote black sand beach in an all-terrain vehicle.

Otahuna – the lodge of dreams.

By following a trail of three lodges, all in different styles – a country manor, a farm stay and a hunting-fishing lodge – I was able to pack many vistas and experiences into one journey. New Zealand is a small enough place to do it, with the help of domestic flights and the occasional helicopter.

Otahuna Lodge, a 30-minute drive from Christchurch’s international airport, is the lodge I imagine in my dreams. The seven-guestroom stately home, built in 1895 as the residence of politician Sir Heaton Rhodes, has had a checkered history over the past 50 years (it was a seminary, then a commune, then derelict) before being rescued by partners Hall Cannon and Miles Refo, who poured love and buckets of money into a complete restoration, opening the house to guests in 2007.

You can see why they love it. Otahuna has the distinction of being the largest private historic residence in New Zealand and one of the best examples of Queen Anne architecture in Australasia.

Heartbreakingly, the earthquake of 2010 damaged the house, but that didn’t deter the new owners, who supervised repairs and reopened it the following year. The original, ornate Rimu panelling, the hand-carved Kauri staircase and the 16 fireplaces, some with their carved inglenooks, survive, as well as the exquisite, embossed Japanese Kinkarakami wallpaper in the dining room, originally installed by Sir Heaton’s wife Jessie.

Otahuna’s Botanical Suite.

You couldn’t find a more charming host than the garrulous, Memphis-born Cannon, who has restored the property with such love, he’s even kept the original switchboard Sir Heaton used. But it doesn’t feel like a museum. Guest rooms have been decorated with aplomb in Colefax & Fowler and Pierre Frey fabrics, bespoke furniture and all mod cons, such as heated bathroom floors.

I stay in the gorgeous attic suite, The Loft, which includes its own door to Narnia in the cupboard. There are several such witty touches throughout the property, such as the chicken coop named Ota-hen-a. And, past the heated outdoor pool, there’s a croquet lawn, of course. Cute, black-nosed sheep occupy one of the paddocks.

The 12 hectares of gardens are magnificent, with woodlands, orchards, flower gardens and a vast organic vegetable and herb garden from which chef Jimmy McIntyre draws his ingredients.

The cooking is off the charts in terms of flavour, using garden produce such as prosciutto and ham from the farm’s pigs and fresh eggs from the chickens. Breakfast is a total delight in the big, country kitchen, with preserves, pickles and chutneys from the garden.

Otahuna is famous for its carpets of daffodils in spring. More than a million bulbs have been planted and about 100,000 of these bloom every year. In autumn, formal gardens with their red benches are a riot of reddish colours and mossy greens.

After the cosy stay, it’s a flight to Wellington and then a quick helicopter transport to Wharekauhau (pronounced foray-ko-ho), a working sheep station with 16 cottages and a villa set atop dramatic 62-metre-tall cliffs overlooking Palliser Bay on the very south of the North Island.

Wellington has been nicknamed “Wellywood” for its vibrant film industry, and the lush neighbouring fields we fly over belong to US film director James Cameron, who has been instrumental (with Peter Jackson) in the industry’s boom. The landscape is wrapped in the peaks of the Remutaka mountain range.

Wharekauhau Country Estate in the North Island.

Wharekauhau was one of the first purpose-built lodges in New Zealand when it opened in 1998. It’s now owned by American entertainment mogul William Foley, who loved it so much as a guest that he bought the property in 2010. Foley has a stake in a number of local vineyards in nearby Martinborough, which also produce Lighthouse, the craft gin made by Rachel Hall, New Zealand’s only female gin distiller.

The lodge, set on 1200 hectares, is supremely comfortable, with plush country house-style interiors by Victoria Fisher. The cottages all have canopy beds, sitting rooms by gas fireplaces, large bathrooms and wide verandas facing the ocean. Because of the spectacular storms in the region, storm watching and stargazing are the lodge’s most popular activities.

Fine dining and drinking New Zealand’s famous wines are too, of course. There’s a dedicated edible garden which supplies the chefs – and there’s a head forager, Jack Fredrickson, an Australian who ventures far and wide on his quad bike to find wild ingredients for the dishes.

Fine dining at Wharekauhau.

The main lodge has room after room of overstuffed furniture and beautiful objects and art, a glasshouse with pool, spa and gym, tennis courts, croquet lawn, games room, library and two restaurants. Every detail is immaculate, in line with the expectations of guests.

Walks down country lanes to visit the sheep are invigorating. And then there are activities such as ATV and quad bike excursions on the moody black sand beach scattered with bleached driftwood, and clay pigeon shooting at stations along the river. (When the zombie apocalypse comes, I’m not going to be much help – I hit one target out of about 20.)

It’s a domestic flight from Wellington to Queenstown and on by car to Blanket Bay Lodge, which sits on the far reaches of Lake Wakatipu, near the village of Glenorchy.

With the Southern Alps framed in every window, the setting has an undoubted wow factor and the lodge itself, a lofty chalet lined with recycled wharf and woolshed timber polished with wool lanolin, is as spectacular as the surrounds.

It’s filled with delightful ephemera – antler chandeliers, taxidermy deer and ducks, displays of birds’ nests, saddles, fishing rods and bales of wool – which makes it feel like a cross between a swank Aspen chalet and a hunting lodge.

Blanket Bay Lodge at dusk.

Opened in 1999 and developed by American Tom Tusher, a keen fisherman, the lodge consists of five lakeside lodge rooms and five suites in the main building, plus two chalet suites and an exclusive-use villa with four bedrooms and private chefs on tap. (Kylie Minogue is a past guest, as are a number of movie stars when in New Zealand to shoot Wellywood productions.)

There are stone hearths and fireplaces throughout, with afternoon teas, cocktails and delicious, chewy cookies served by the fire. (Each cookie arrives topped with a gilded chocolate “B” – an example of the superb attention to detail throughout the lodge.) The gastronomy is refined, with dinner an ever-changing five-course degustation sourced from New Zealand regions, such as organic chicken from nearby farms and kingfish sashimi from local waters. As with all the lodges, full farm breakfasts are a highlight of the day.

Why venture outside? Well, there’s the lakefront and peninsula woodlands and sheep farms to explore on foot, plus the world-famous hiking trails on the Alps.

One of the experiences is a jet boat adventure along the Dart River, which is a couple of hours of screaming and getting soaked as the driver does countless “wheelies” in the cold water. Next time, I’ll take a slow boat.

Jet-boating on the Dart River.

The big draw is the great Lord of the Rings landscapes of the Southern Alps and Milford Sound. The way to see it all is by helicopter. Our helicopter lands directly on the lawn, scooping us up and darting along the lake and into the jagged mountain peaks of the Fiordland National Park.

The two-hour trip includes a thrilling landing and walk on the ever-shrinking glacier in the peaks. It’s not pristine – the ice is still covered with ash from the Australian bushfires in 2018. Then we chopper down to Milford Sound and land at the airport, which is squeezed between mountain and waterfalls, and must be one of the busiest in the world, judging by the number of small planes landing and taking off.

Back at the lodge, there’s a roaring fire in the hearth, cups of tea and those moreish cookies.

THE DETAILS

STAY
Relais & Chateaux have three properties in New Zealand. Otahuna, from $2385; Wharekauhau, $2465; Blanket Bay, $2065 a night; all inclusive of breakfast and dinner, fine wines and select experiences. Children of all ages welcome at Wharekauhau (from 10 years at Blanket Bay and 12 years at Otahuna). See relaischateaux.com

FLY
Air New Zealand (airnz.com), Emirates (emirates.com) and Qantas (qantas.com) all fly direct to Christchurch from Melbourne or Sydney.

MORE
newzealand.com

The writer was a guest of Relais & Chateaux.