With pristine snow fields, adrenalin-fuelled pursuits and a white-hot après-ski scene all within scarf-flinging distance, Matakauri Lodge boutique hotel in Queenstown, New Zealand, is at its most alluring during the local ski season, which runs from now until it’s sticks-down in October.
Style Alpine elegance
Setting Shores of Lake Wakatipu
Why this week? There’s a boutique hotel offer for Smith members to take advantage of: enjoy the ultimate ski package at Matakauri Lodge, valid for stays from 20 June – 30 August, 2011. The hotel will treat you to return daily transfers to the swoon-worthy ski fields of Coronet Peak, breakfast, pre-dinner drinks and canapés, gourmet dinner, and, to soothe slope-weary bodies, a 50-minute massage each on every day of your stay.
Our favourite bits? Just seven minutes’ drive from New Zealand’s adventure capital, you’ll find this jaw-dropping, view-flashing haute hotel. With 11 luxurious rooms – all with majestic alpine and lake views – this boutique beauty is blessed with flawless natural charms. Immaculate service, uncontrived dining and light-filled interiors by Virginia Fisher add to the wow factor. After a day spent dashing about on the slopes, retire to the serenely stylish abodes, which offer fireplace-warmed sitting areas, walk-in wardrobes, oversized bath tubs and private decks. Then hit the top-notch restaurant.
Mr & Mrs Smith say: ‘Matakauri Lodge excels at stealth wealth, bursting with convivial staff, terrific food and discrete luxury. And as there are only 11 rooms, it felt incredibly private. We rarely see other guests, and despite our room being under another, we don’t hear them either.
People come to Queenstown for the movie-set style views. This isn’t news. But you do not find views like this in town – uninterrupted, expansive, lake-edge vistas complemented by authentic serenity. You arrive and feel an irrational need to write a novel, or some terribly clichéd poetry. It is awesome, in the true sense of the word.’
Read our full anonymous review of Matakauri Lodge, Queenstown, by Zoë Foster
