This weekend, we’d like to bound out of (big, boutique) bed, polish off a stack-load of pancakes with crisp bacon, fat-yolked eggs and leg-sized sausages, wipe out our beloved on the golf course with some immaculate swings and finish off the day’s adventures with a Kiwi mud wrap accompanied by forest views and tuneful bird song. Better book a stay at our hotel of the week, then, the lofty Lodge at Kauri Cliffs, in New Zealand’s eye-bogglingly beautiful Bay of Islands…
Style Upscale country manor
Setting Coastal cliffs, Pacific panoramas
Why this week? The Lodge at Kauri Cliffs hotel recently nabbed an almost perfect score (99.2%) in Condé Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Awards 2013, making it the readers’ number one resort in Australia and New Zealand. Don’t just trust the numbers: go and see for yourself what the big deal is. To sweeten the deal, the Lodge currently has a ‘Stay 3, Pay 2’ Smith hotel offer for Smith members.
Our favourite bits We’re partial to the six spacious standard suites paired in pretty cottages flanked by forest. All are neutral-toned with comfy armchairs by the fire, walk-in wardrobes, luxe bathrooms and private porches overlooking the sea. But if you fancy more space and your own infinity pool, book into the Two-Bedroom Owner’s Cottage. Don’t miss the uplifting spa, surrounded by verdant totara forest; treatments make use of local mud, minerals, crystals, stones and shells. Balls to beautifying? Check out the 18-hole golf course, practice range, putting and chipping greens and golf shop (the hotel has Callaway clubs for hire, too).
Mr & Mrs Smith say ’When we’re taken to our room, I think I’ve died and gone to heaven. This is a room you want to steal back home in your hand luggage so nothing gets broken. Every detail is considered: caramel-colour soft furnishings sit against natural timber walls, rattan armchairs with wool throws are arranged before an open fireplace in the sitting room, and the sunken bath looks over a lush, private garden. I’m crazy about the his-and-hers wardrobes, the minibar complete with home-made biscuits for that early morning cuppa, and there’s a terrace with attention-demanding views to the ocean.
The next morning, the sun rises on a picture-perfect day and we gear up for the 18 holes that lie ahead. Paul, the resort pro, talks us through the course. Six holes follow the cliff’s edge, dropping off into the Pacific Ocean. Away from the sea, fairways wind their way through farmland and remnants of rainforest. It’s not hard to see why aficionados from all over the world travel to play here. (Should you tire of the game, there’s a beautiful diversion a 15-minute stroll from the seventh hole: a private beach that’s an exquisite shade of soft pink, the result of pounding waves crushing shells into the tiniest flakes)…’ Read the full anonymous review of the Lodge at Kauri Cliffs.
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