A luxury and relaxing bed & breakfast lodge in New Zealand
November 11th, 2008 | by Tom |Article Tags: bed & breakfast, gastronomy, nature, new zealand, relax
A luxury and relaxing bed & breakfast lodge in New Zealand
Heading back in time Okuku Country Estate, New Zealand
It’s quite appropriate that The Lord of the Rings film trilogy was made in picture-postcard New Zealand and that Okuku Country Estate is also like walking back in time – 80 years ago. This is a grand house of the 1920s which has become a poorly-kept secret as one of the most relaxing hideaway lodges in heartland New Zealand.
This is a tranquil destination, if you can imagine where cellphones and laptops seem out of place. I felt naked the first 3-4 hours that I couldn’t use my laptop in my room. By the end of my stay I felt fully dressed and relaxed again – without my cellphone.
As I entered the long drive way, about an hour from the Christchurch international airport, I suddenly entered a world I had only read about in early 20th century novels. Okuku is a grand homestead in the Canterbury foothills.
There are old black and white photos inside of the men setting off on a hunt. The original billiards room, billiards table and large open fire is unchanged from a bygone era.
A natural environment
Okuku has been lovingly and stunningly restored by owners Rob and Lorraine Smith. They are from Christchurch but lived in Sydney for 25 years – Rob as a pharmacist and Lorraine as a principal of a private girls school. They returned ‘home’ and spent a year doing up Okuku.
To describe how gracious, sweeping, peaceful and relaxing Okuku is does not do justice to the restorative work and natural environment of the state. Within an hour of arriving, I had even ventured beyond the front veranda. I sat in a comfy wicker chair sipping tea and sandwiches flicking through magazines. I could hear the sound of the bees and birds working their colourful flower garden – there were no other sounds.
The sun beat down and so much to see but I couldn’t move. Time stood still at Okuku. Lorraine finally showed me around the gardens, the little cottage for special friends, her immaculate vegetable and herb garden, the trees, the manicured flower garden – still not a sound but our feet crunching on the small whitened gravel driveway. For the first time in my life, the world had stopped and I was in heaven.
Dining with Ernest Hemingway
I had a spa in the pool room before showering myself in Linden Leave products and dressing neatly for the evening meal. As I tip-toed down the sweeping staircase and gazed at the grand wood-panelled walls, patina-beaten wooden floors, rich textured rugs, with soft music floating about, I thought for a moment I might be dining with P G Woodhouse, Ernest Hemingway or the King of England. Instead I spend a most fabulous evening with friends and farmers Harry and Virginia Pawsey.
I sipped Pegasus Bay chardonnay with my entree-honey seared salmon and asparagus salad and then another glass with pumpkin Thai coconut curry and rounded off by vanilla panna cotta with orange and strawberry salad.
I leaned back from the 1840 flame mahogany dining table like I was in paradise.
Rakahuri
The next morning I woke to more silence and enjoyed tea and toast before I bike ride to the most moving small country cemetery I have ever seen. The Birch Hill gravesite is set in an amphitheatre of trees, neatly mown and with a stone alter it is one place on earth I could easily rest at the end of my days. I returned to Okuku to learn more about the lodge, originally known as Rakahuri in 1860. But it was razed in a fire in 1917 and the ‘new’ Okuku was built in 1920.
Today Lorraine and Rob are enjoying the fruits of their labour at Okuku. I want to return, again and again.
Text – Kip Brook, Word of Mouth Media NZ | www.wordofmouthnz.com
BOOKING:
Okuku Country Estate
T: +64 3 3128740
W: www.okukucountryestate.co.nz
Transport
Jucy Rentals
W: www.jucy.co.nz
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