NEW ZEALAND
LUXURY LODGES
MINARET STATION Accessible only by helicopter, this luxury
tented lodge in the heart of the Southern Alps is part of a 65,000-hectare working farm and is genuinely remote.
minaretstation.com
CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: Waiheke wine region; Delamore Lodge, Waiheke Island; kayaking on Milford Sound; departing Auckland for Waiheke
EAGLE’S NEST
A 75-acre estate with five private luxury villas each sporting heated infinity pools and views across the Bay of Islands.
eaglesnest.co.nz
ANNANDALE
An hour from Christchurch, this Banks Peninsula farm has a homestead with
gardens, infinity pool, spa pool and tennis court, plus three private villas to rent.
annandale.com
This part of New Zealand is packed with opportunities to do things that will ramp up your adrenaline to record levels. One sign outside a shop offered a Shotover Jet ride, luge, bungee jumping, canyon swinging, paragliding, rafting, zip-trekking, skydiving and quad-biking – and that was just the top half of the chalkboard. So the chances are your client is going to be ready to relax later in the day, which makes it vital they have somewhere splendid to stay such as Azur Lodge (box, page 69). Azur is part of a collection called Luxury Lodges of New Zealand, which has properties dotted across the country. The standard is extraordinary. See the box (left) for a few of the best.
70 —aspire september 2014 Back up north and for those
who enjoyed the Hobbit films there is the chance to see an attraction that has sprung up in the wake of NZ becoming the home of Middle- earth: Hobbiton. Kids’ stuff? Not so, according to New Zealand’s prime minister, whom I met while attending trade show Trenz. That sounds flippant but I don’t say it lightly. It’s wonderful that the man in the top job takes tourism seriously enough to sit down with a London- based travel editor for 15 minutes. He told me: “Both the movies [the first two Hobbit films] out so far have grossed about a billion dollars which give you an idea of how far-reaching they are and we have seen a significant number of
PICTURE: NICK SERVIAN
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