The royal treatment, the New Zealand way.
For the past century, Huka Lodge has commanded a dreamy patch of land on the banks of the Waikato River outside Taupō, luring a constant stream of uber-famous guests like Miuccia Prada, Bill Gates and even the late Queen, many times.
Dutch-born Alex van Heeren turned Huka into a luxury lodge in 1984, but it all began 60 years earlier when Irishman and keen angler Alan Pye staked a tent on the riverbanks and started a rustic fisherman’s camp. To mark its 100th anniversary, the world-famous North Island lodge closed its doors last year for a NZ$25-million renovation, the results of which were revealed this autumn.
The Huka experience
The first thing you notice when you turn onto the drive at Huka Lodge is the lawn – a mossy velvet that leads you all the way to the front door. Quiet luxury pervades every inch of the property, from the custom Rodd & Gunn uniforms on the friendly lodge team to the complimentary mini bar full of New Zealand treats that’s subtly restocked every morning.
On arrival, there is nothing so basic as a check-in. Instead, you’re whisked onto the terrace or into a lounge chair for Louis Roederer Champagne and charcuterie, while the team talk you through your stay. Lodge life revolves around the main homestead, with its communal dining room, terrace and lounges.
The lodge doesn’t compete with its surreally beautiful setting so much as frame it, offering countless nooks from which to greedily inhale the views of the lush grounds and emerald Waikato River. Even though there’s no question that this is an ultra-luxury property, there’s still something grounded about Huka, with its feet firmly planted in a country where a love of the outdoors is less a hobby than a way of life.
Related story: Inside Hamilton Island’s newest luxury hotel, The Sundays
What’s new at Huka Lodge?
For a property that had so long set the standards for New Zealand luxury lodges, the renovations were a delicate business, so the owners (Australia’s Baillie Lodges, of Southern Ocean Lodge fame), entrusted it to the original creative team.
The now-renowned New Zealand interior designer Virginia Fisher started her career at the lodge in 1984, on her first big contract, and she’s returned to bring Huka forward in time with an elevated, country-luxe scheme (reportedly with less tartan, but just as many sumptuous textiles). Fisher added to the lodge’s collection of still lifes and oil paintings, and scoured antique stores worldwide for solid, time-worn pieces and little decorative details. The late Queen would have approved.
Landscape designer Suzanne Turley has coaxed the gardens back to full glory, nurturing 17 acres of manicured lawns, shapely hedges and garden beds overflowing with ferns, flowering shrubs and native trees.
Architectural improvements have made the main lodge bigger and brighter, expanding the dining room into a sun-flooded space with floor-to-ceiling doors that opens onto the terrace. The new River Room is a cluster of plush banquettes and window seats on the river side of a double-sided fireplace, hidden off the lounge, a perfect nook for an afternoon of reading or late-night whisky.
The all-new wellness zone is the largest addition. It revolves around two huts modelled on beloved Kiwi ‘bach’ beach shacks, flanking a flowering garden bed. On one side, there’s an airy gym, where glass doors slide open to a private lawn. On the other are two rooms for leisurely treatments, a sauna and the invigorating contrast set-up: a high-end bush shower that lets you dump frigid buckets of water over yourself, before dipping into a hot plunge pool surrounded by forest.
Related story: Want to work from NZ? Now you can with its new digital nomad visas
The rooms
At any one time, you’ll only share Huka Lodge with no more than 50 other guests. The 20 Lodge Suites are spread along the bank, with Jurassic-era forests at their back and the river in front, accessed via French doors that open onto private terraces. Every room boasts a deep bathtub with a secluded, leafy outlook; some suites also offer open fireplaces. Signature Baillie beds, large walk-in dressing rooms, the complimentary mini bar, comfortable loungers and a discrete turn-down service add to the allure of a room that’s painfully hard to check out of.
The two bedroom Alan Pye Cottage and four-bedroom Alex van Heeren Cottage are each a dream within a dream, a favourite with families and ultra-high-profile guests in search of absolute privacy. With private gardens, pools and expansive living and dining areas, the cottages level up the luxury.
The infinity-style pool at Alex van Heeren Cottage sits on a deck high above the river. In the Alan Pye owner’s residence, as well as the pool on the sprawling terrace overlooking a protected lawn, a tucked-away private spa beckons next to an open-air fireplace. Both cottages are made for entertaining, with generous kitchens (and subtle lodgings in the Alex Van Heeren for your private chef, nannies and/or bodyguards, of course).
Related story: You can now book a private chef, a massage or a photoshoot on Airbnb
The food
As with many great lodges, the flow of the day at Huka Lodge naturally eddies around fine food and wine. Guests can book secluded private dining spots – warmed by braziers in the Orchard, hidden by topiary in the Green Room or in the candle-lit sunken cellar. In this cellar is a collection of NZ, Australian and French wines, including verticals of cult local wines like Tony Bish, Stonyridge Larose and Te Mata.
Aotearoa pours and produce dominate the included four-course daily dinners each night, while the lighter a la carte lunch menu is available to order, plating up crowd-pleasers like a gingery kumara soup, or the signature Baillie Burger. If you happen to be victorious on a trout-fishing expedition, the kitchen can turn your prize into sashimi or pan-fried fillets to enjoy alongside.
Huka manages to divert premium produce that is more often exported offshore, like South Island lamb, paua (abalone) and Tora crayfish, plating it up on custom tableware from NZ artists, such as Waiheke Ceramics and Lava Glass. After dinner, guests naturally drift into the lounge for after-dinner petits fours and fireside nightcaps from the help-yourself bar, to plot hiking, tramping or sailing exploits for the next day.
Related story: Did you know you can have afternoon tea at Buckingham Palace this summer?
What to do in Taupō
From guided heli-hikes, trout fishing, kayaking, white water rafting, golfing and mountain biking to boat trips on the azure waters of Lake Taupō, Huka Lodge partners with local experts to satisfy active guests.
Although the trout stock in the river beside the lodge has largely been depleted by damming, Lake Taupō and its ample stocks of brown and rainbow trout is only a 10-minute drive away. A boat trip on the lake is a must, even if you’re not keen on casting a line, if only to see the Ngātoroirangi Mine Bay Māori Rock Carvings – an intricate artwork on a sheer rock face rising straight out of the water.
(Look out for giant watchful Māori stone statues hidden in the gardens at Huka, commissioned from two of the artists who aided artist Matahi Whakataka-Brightwell on his masterwork on the lake: the late Jono Randell and Stephen Myhre.)
On foot from the lodge, the Spa Thermal Park walk is an easy three-kilometre hike along the banks of the Waikato River, all the way to the thrashing Huka Falls (one of New Zealand’s most-visited tourist stops). More languid lodge-goers can melt away the hours in their suites; or in front of any of the seven communal fireplaces.
Related story: An Adelaide Hills winery just opened a rooftop bar in Mayfair, London
How to get to Huka Lodge
Air New Zealand offers at least two daily flights to Taupō from Auckland, with the lodge offering complimentary transfers to and from Taupō Airport. Taupō is an approximate four-hour drive through pretty scenery from Auckland, up to five hours from Wellington and a one-hour drive from Rotorua. If you’re feeling flush, it’s a 70-minute flight from Auckland Airport by helicopter.
Huka Lodge
271 Huka Falls Road
Wairakei, Taupō
hukalodge.com
Related story: Kangaroo Island’s Southern Ocean Lodge is back, and more beautiful than ever
Comments
Join the conversation
Log in Register