Luxury lodge overlooking New Zealand’s great lake

EVER craved to be Laird of all you survey? Bonny, tussocky acres sweeping lakewards? Clouds obscuring the distant ancestral peaks? A dram in hand (or preferably a minerally, off-dry Pinot Gris, this being New Zealand, not Scotland)? 

1,200 cubic km of volcanic matter was sent 55km into the air, causing global darkness for three days

Well, your dreams can come true at a wee place called Kinloch in the North Island. Actually it’s not so wee in investment terms – this luxury homage to the namesake Caledonian castle but set in the middle of a championship golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus, the Kinloch Club. And from all vantage points at newly opened The Lodge at Kinloch there’s the view money could buy – of distant Lake Taupo, Kiwiland’s largest, and behind it Tongariro National Park’s trio of volcanoes, snowcapped in winter, sublime at sunset.

Which we surveyed in all its glory before dinner, sipping that Pinot Gris and contemplating a meal built around local venison. Chef Bruce Thomason formerly worked at sister property, Treetops Lodge & Estate, 45 minutes to the north in Rotorua. Much of the produce is sourced from its 2,000 hectare private estate, which adheres to the ‘estate to plate’ organic philosophy. 

 

Owner and passionate naturalist John Sax created that glamorous retreat out of 800-year-old native forest and at very different Kinloch is equally committed to design excellence. This was evident in the villa we had just checked into and in our pre-prandial surroundings in the main Lodge. 

He hired the best designers New Zealand could offer – internationally acclaimed architect Andrew Patterson and Virginia Fisher for the interiors – and provided them with the finest materials. Starting with the angular schist stone exterior there’s a nod to a Scottish baronial but on its own terms. Let’s call it claymore-sharp contemporary chic. 

View from our bedroom

Being so new, they are still addressing some issues (an awkward curtain rail in our living quarters is only a minor gripe, while the infinity pool and the basement spa are on the way) but, if it smells new, it feels – from courtyard to public rooms – ageless.

We checked out the Great Room (lush textures of velvet and fox fur, brass and copper), the Dining Room (whitewash and light, banquettes and sybaritic sofas), Tthe masculine Bar (leather and rock surfaces, cowhide, goat fur and burnt wood flooring) and private dinner space The Den (soft and warm with silver and golds, slate floors and vivid New Zealand designed wool rugs).

The bar and below the other public rooms

 

Yes, it is at odds with the bunkers and fairways outside. If you are not a golfer (or a golf widow) it’s easy to ignore them and treat the p;ace as an A-list romantic retreat. We made every effort. Regretting we’d come down to earth again next morning, heading south to Art Deco Napier, the next leg of our Auckland-Christchurch road-trip.

We had not been long in the country, flying into Auckland with Cathay Pacific from Hong Kong, having taken advantage of the four-times a week direct service from Manchester. Hong Kong, with its terrific Cathay Pacific lounge, is a hub connecting with 190 destinations globally (there’s a new route from Gatwick launching in September, too).

Even so, after a further 11 hour flight we had needed two days of rest and recuperation on idyllic Waheke Island in Auckland Bay. Kinloch completed that recovery. It helped that the  Lake Taupo area has so much to offer (for those of us, who don’t play golf) and Kinloch are happy to arrange any number of activities such as fishing, custom therapy programs and ‘Four Play’, a daylong adrenaline-packed package that includes a bungy jump, jet boating, a scenic flight and a sky dive.!

A duck repeatedly played tag with our catamaran

Genial Gillian Smith, once of Oswaldtwistle, Lancs and now the Lodge’s events manager, kindly organised a more sedate boat trip on the lake for us on Chris Jolly’s Cruise Cat. It sails from the dockside at Tapuhaeharuru Bay a 15 minute drive from Kinloch. The 90 minute cruise can’t encompass the vastness of the lake, which is 625sq km (also 186m at its deepest point, but you don’t want to go there). It was formed over 1,800 years ago when the largest volcanic eruption recorded by man occurred, when 1,200 cubic km of volcanic matter was sent 55km into the air causing global darkness for three days – registered by both the Chinese and the Romans.

The full name is Taupo Nui A Tia, which translates as “the cloak or shoulder mat of Tia” (Tia was a priest among the Maoris who discovered it). The white caps on the water represent the white feathers of the cloak.

The carvings are intricate close-up

The surface was untroubled as our boat reached the site of the lake’s famous Maori rock carvings that are of surprisingly recent origin, being commissioned in 1980 to represent many of the local legends.

More spectacular are two local waterfalls, both within easy reach of Kinloch and the tourist-centric delights of downtown Taupo, whose population doubles to 65,000 during the summer holiday period. With its lengthy lakefront and ample shopping and leisure opportunities it looks like it can handle the load.

Huka Falls are a stunning natural wonder

The Huka Falls are the largest rapids on the 425km long Waikato River and are the most visited (free and reached by a riverside walk) natural attraction in New Zealand. Here the normally 100m wide Waikato is squeezed through a 20m wide gorge Every second up to 220,000 litres of water gushes pours over a 20m cliff face to create a dazzling blue/green pool.

A five minute drive further upstream you’ll find Aratiatia Dam, a spectacular, man-managed marvel. Four times a day in summer the dam gates are opened and the river falls 28m in the space  of 1km. Get to the rocky viewpoint a few minutes in advance to watch the rapids slowly building up. It is used for hydroelectric power and you may recognise it from  Peter Jackson’s movie, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

Curses, nearly got through a New Zealand travelogue without mentioning those hairy-footed heroes!

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