Out On A Limb

Sun Herald

Sunday March 2, 2008

Winsor Dobbin, The author was guest of Hapuku Lodge and Air New Zealand.

New Zealand does luxury lodges better than anywhere else. Winsor Dobbin gets a bird's-eye view from a very different style of accommodation.

I love tree houses. I loved them when I was a kid and nothing has changed now I'm an older, fatter kid. Hapuku Lodge, outside Kaikoura on the east coast of New Zealand's South Island, has taken the tree house concept to new heights.

As I looked out from mine, the view was of olive groves, rolling meadows and, in the distance, the blue waters of Mangamaunu Bay. In the other direction the backdrop was the snow-capped Kaikoura Seaward Mountain Range towering over a cluster of deer.

Manager Rod Ramsay jokes: "The view was already here, all we had to do was provide the bed."

Hapuku Lodge has a lot more than a bed, although mine was supremely comfortable.

My tree house boasted not only giant windows from which to enjoy the views, but an iPod music system pre-programmed with my choice of music, custom-crafted furnishings using local wood, wide-screen TVs with satellite channels, bathrooms with heated towel rails and floors and rainforest style showers that open directly on to the private decks.

Opened in 2006, the seven tree houses are 10 metres up, among the branches of manuka trees. Designed to complement the surrounding environment using native timbers, they also boast large spa baths and fireplaces for chilly winter nights.

The property, built by a family of architects on a deer farm, caters for a maximum of 34 people at a time, in six lodge rooms and a self-contained apartment in the old olive- press building.

Guests are free to decide whether to mingle at the pre-dinner cocktails or request a quiet, romantic dinner for two. The Olive House has its own kitchen for guests who want to be totally self-sufficient but they'd be crazy not to sample a lodge menu that generally has a range of choices, although local crayfish is a perennial favourite.

Rates include breakfast but guests are free to choose whether to dine in. With many of the ingredients drawn from the lodge's own herb garden and organic vegetable garden, diners are assured of the freshest food.

The olive oil served comes from the 1000-plus trees on the property.

Three-course dinners, with an appetiser thrown in, cost $79 a person, plus a supplement for crayfish. Dishes include venison tenderloin with udon noodles and black olive vinaigrette, and salmon with lemongrass and chilli-coconut emulsion. Serious food served in a relaxed way.

The mainly New Zealand wine list is extensive (think top names like Cloudy Bay, Main Divide, Trinity Hill, Spy Valley and Torlesse), with a range of choices by the glass for the more moderately inclined, or maybe the more experimental.

To work off any excesses, bicycles are available, on which guests can explore the Puhi Puhi Valley or ride to the surf beach. Spa packages are also available for the more leisurely inclined. The town of Kaikoura, 12 kilometres south of the lodge, is midway between Blenheim and Christchurch and largely off the radar for Australian tourists.

The vineyards of Marlborough, birthplace of the sauvignon blanc boom, are two hours to the north but the Kaikoura Winery brings a lot of fruit in from Marlborough to sell to the tourists who flock to its cafe and cellar door overlooking the ocean. The wines are good, the views spectacular. Deli platters are available.

Kaikoura is a popular destination for domestic tourists, even if largely unknown to Australians. Set on a rocky peninsula, it is home to a wide range of marine mammals and seabirds, and is one of the rare locales where whales can be seen all year.

The Maori name Kaikoura translates to "meal of crayfish" and it is crayfish for which the region has traditionally been famous. On a recent trip I found large crays for sale, boiled in local mineral water, at one of several roadside stalls, for $35.

The region has been dubbed "a maritime Serengeti" by New Zealand Geographic and whales - Kaikoura was a whaling station as recently as 1964 - are the main reason for visiting. Today Kaikoura lies within the Southern Hemisphere Whale Sanctuary.

Several species, including humpbacks, pilots, blue whales and orcas, can be seen off Kaikoura at different times of the year, but young male sperm whales (some up to 20 metres long) are permanent residents, enjoying the rich diet of the Kaikoura waters while building up their strength to move to the mating grounds of the north.

Dolphins and fur seals are also regular visitors, a seal colony being at the end of the peninsula.

You can walk among the seals if you can cope with their belching and barking.

Having spent hours at sea in previous fruitless searches for whales (and being prone to seasickness), I was delighted to discover Wings Over Whales, which does 30-minute whale-watching flights in nifty eight-seater Gippsland Air Van aircraft.

Pilot Anita Hayward was hugely knowledgeable about the whales and their attachment to the nutrient-rich waters, which are up to two kilometres deep in places.

Wings over Whales has a sighting rate in excess of 95 per cent for sperm whales and pilots often stay out an extra few minutes if they've located a pod.

Our time was just about up when suddenly, memorably, a large whale appeared, blew a couple of times and then submerged, teasing us. A second whale appeared just seconds later, a show-off, surrounded by a couple of boats and a helicopter.

He allowed us all to ooh and aah for several minutes before descending, slowly, gracefully.

Kaikoura is also home to curious dusky dolphins and swimming with the dolphins is popular, even in what are decidedly chilly waters. Albatross and petrel are also plentiful.

Other local activities include four-wheel-drive adventures, kayaking, horse trekking, fishing for hapuku or blue cod, and Maori cultural tours, but it's my guess that many visitors are content to breathe in the sea air and enjoy the country atmosphere while feasting twice a day on the local seafood.

A visit to the old-style art deco cinema might also be on the agenda.

Restaurants such as 42.25 South, the Green Dolphin, the White Morph and the Lobster Inn are all very good and I also ate well at Hislops Wholefoods Cafe, which becomes a restaurant at night.

>TRIP NOTES

* Getting there Air New Zealand has regular flights from Sydney to Christchurch. Kaikoura is a two-hour drive north. If you get the chance, check out Air New Zealand's superb new luxurious lounge at Christchurch Airport. Book at www.airnewzealand.com.

* Staying there Hapuku Lodge and Tree Houses, State Highway 1, Kaikoura. Phone +64 3 319 6559; email info@hapukulodge.com or see www.hapukulodge.com. Lodge accommodation starts from $390 per night including GST and breakfast, with tree houses from $620 per night.

* Wings Over Whales Flights from $135 per person. See www.whales.co.nz.

* For further information See www.alpinepacifictourism.co.nz.

© 2008 Sun Herald

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