Blanket Bay Lodge: New Zealand’s hidden getaway for the rich and famous

IF YOU’RE looking for the perfect getaway, look no further than New Zealand’s best luxury lodge. Who are you to argue with Sir Ian McKellen?

Cloudy Bay Diamond shell clams with tomato consommé, pickled white anchovy, touille croute, organic Zany Zeus ricotta cavatelli and preserved lemon.

IF YOU’RE looking for the perfect getaway this winter, you should look no further than New Zealand’s best luxury lodge.

Sir Ian McKellen described it as “paradise on Earth”. Who are you to argue with Gandalf?

Located about an hour’s drive south of Queenstown, sitting on the north edge of the stunning Lake Wakatipu, is a place called Blanket Bay.

Blanket Bay is so called because the original pioneers from Europe would shear their sheep on the shore under rough shelters stitched together from blankets.

Today, the sheep are still there, and someone presumably still shears them (they look fabulous) but the rough shelters have given way to Blanket Bay Lodge, a rustic (but actually modern) five-star lodge hailed as one of world’s best.

Owned by former Levi Strauss president Tom Usher and his wife Pauline, the property was initially bought in the 1970s as a lakeside getaway, before reopening as a private hotel in 1998. It has consistently won major international awards and regularly appears on Condé Nast Traveler’s ‘world’s best’ lists.

The best way to describe Blanket Bay Lodge is understated luxury. It’s the kind of place the ultra-rich come to escape the wailing noises of the 99 per cent, and celebrities go to put their Hobbit feet up.

It’s definitely not cheap: low season (April to October) room rates start at $NZ775 per night and go up to $NZ2100 per night. During high season (October to April), rooms start at $NZ1365 and go up to $NZ2950.

Rooms start at $NZ775 per night during the low season.

It’s the ultimate luxury getaway, if you can afford it.

Just to the right is an indoor-outdoor spa where you can take in the view.

There are only 12 rooms — five lodge rooms, three lodge suites and four chalet suites off the main building — and often at least one is reserved for a security detail for high-profile holidayers.

For health and fitness it offers a treatment suite, steam rooms, gym and jacuzzi, as well as an outdoor heated lap pool. For high-level meetings or corporate events, there’s a boardroom and several breakout rooms.

Long, polished wooden hallways keep guests spread out, and a central Great Room with lounges and stone fireplace serves as a meeting place. Just off the Great Room is the Den, a bar where guests gather for pre-dinner drinks.

The staff, led by industry veteran Brent Hyde, are like ninjas who went to finishing school. If guests feel like having a conversation or could use a drink, their hospitality senses will kick in. If you just want to be left alone, they vanish into the stonework.

More disconcerting is the turndown service. You can leave your room to go for a walk, turn back at the end of the hall when you realise you’ve forgot your camera, and find your bed freshly made, with fresh macaroons in the minibar and classical music playing through the radio, sort of like The Shining.

“In this spectacular corner of New Zealand discover endless ways to restore your physical and spiritual wellbeing,” the website advises. “Here we celebrate the art of pure relaxation.”

It’s true. If you feel like doing bugger-all you can sit in the indoor-outdoor spa gazing at the snow-capped peaks across the lake thinking, “That’s impressive.”

Sir Ian McKellen described it as “paradise on Earth”.

If horse riding is your thing, you can ride horses.

Wildlight Safaris’ Dean Fitzpatrick specialises in eco-tourism.

Or you can use Blanket Bay as a literal launching pad for a ridiculous array of wholesome outdoor activities: fly-fishing, heli-skiing, hiking on the Routeburn or Milford Tracks, jetboating, kayaking, 4WD tours, horse riding, art trails and vineyards.

There are also regular helicopter flight-seeing trips over the World Heritage Fiordland National Park and Milford Sound. Weather permitting, the helicopter will even pick you up and drop you off on the lawn.

If you’re looking for someone to show you around and explain the wildlife to you, local Kiwi Dean Fitzpatrick of Wildlight Safaris is your man. Dean runs an eco-tourism company big on “conscious travel”. That is, giving something back.

For example, guests might get the chance to take part in a reforestation program, planting their own Kōwhai tree grown in nursery pots at the local primary school. Each tree comes with a certificate and GPS location, giving you a “life long connection” to the land.

(A few fun facts about Dean: he was one of the pioneers of BodyAttack in the ‘90s, responsible for much of the choreography. He knows pretty much everything there is to know about New Zealand plants and wildlife. And he had never heard of Shazam.)

The kitchen, led by award-winning executive chef Corey Hume, churns out an ever-changing menu of world-class cuisine, focusing on locally sourced seasonal produce. And in case you’re not convinced already, this is what two days of meals at Blanket Bay Lodge look like:

Confit New Zealand salmon with celeriac remoulade, citrus dressing and edible flowers.

Pan roasted red snapper fillet with tomato, potato and ginger curry and saffron aioli.

Gooey chocolate tart, banana, honeycomb and salted caramel ice cream.

Eggs Benedict with salmon on an English muffin.

Whipped Fiddlers Hill goats fromage with truffled honey ‘cannelloni’ and honeycomb, smoked apple, apple and manuka honey puree.

Butter poached crayfish tail with Cloudy Bay Diamond shell clams, organic ricotta cavatelli, preserved meyer lemon, rouille, boquerón, tomato consommé, sel rouge.

Lemon tart with raspberry, coconut, mascarpone, Italian meringue.

Cauliflower and roast garlic soup with garlic oil and organic mascarpone.

Wild Atlantic scallops with preserved lemon, soy, radish, cucumber, pickled mustard seeds.

Salade composeé with Clevedon Valley buffalo mozzarella mousse, Kalamata olives, tomatillo ketchup, capers, basil, tomato and Ortiz anchovy.

Farm-raised Wapiti venison charred shortloin, bacon pannacotta, brussel leaves, fava beans, pinot noir pears and juniper jus.

Hand-rolled egg pappardelle with radicchio, meyric walnuts, Belgian endive, green bean puree and gorgonzola dolce.

Oreo cheesecake with Black Doris plum jam, brown butter and cocoa crumble, raspberry marshmallow and sorbet.

Cloudy Bay Diamond shell clams with tomato consommé, pickled white anchovy, touille croute, organic Zany Zeus ricotta cavatelli and preserved lemon.

The author travelled to New Zealand as a guest of Virgin Australia via the newly established trans-Tasman Business Class route.