Matakauri Lodge

West of central Queenstown, on the road that follows Lake Wakatipu towards Glenorchy, a group of low stone and timber buildings faces south across the water to Cecil Peak and Walter Peak. Matakauri Lodge stands on a terrace above the shore here, with the lake below and The Remarkables rising to the east.

History

The lodge takes its name from a Māori story of the lake. The giant Matau seized a young woman, Manata, and carried her into the mountains. Her lover, Matakauri, found the giant asleep and set him alight. The fire burned so fiercely that it carved a deep hollow in the earth, which filled with water to become Lake Wakatipu. The giant's heart would not burn, and it is said to beat on at the bottom of the lake, which is why the water level rises and falls in a slow, steady rhythm through the day.

A smaller lodge stood on the site before Julian Robertson, the American investor who founded the hedge fund Tiger Management, bought it and rebuilt it as the third of his New Zealand lodges, after Kauri Cliffs in Northland and The Farm at Cape Kidnappers in Hawke's Bay. Robertson first came to New Zealand in the late 1970s and returned for the rest of his life; he died in 2022. Matakauri is a member of Relais & Châteaux.

Architecture and design

The main lodge holds the lounge, the library, the bar and the dining room, with walls of glass towards the lake and a large stone fireplace at its centre. The suites are set in separate buildings along the slope, so that each has its own view and some distance from its neighbours. Interiors are restrained, in wool, timber and stone, in the colours of the tussock and grey schist of the surrounding hills.

Rooms and suites

Each suite has a bedroom and sitting area, a fireplace, a terrace and a bathroom with a deep bath placed to look over the lake. A separate Owner's Cottage, with several bedrooms, suits families and small groups who want a house of their own with the lodge's service.

Dining

Dinner is a set menu that changes daily and draws on the produce of the South Island: Central Otago lamb, venison, fish from the coast and vegetables from local growers. The cellar gives a prominent place to Central Otago pinot noir from the vineyards of Gibbston, Bannockburn and the Cromwell basin. Breakfast and lunch are served in the dining room or on the terrace above the water.

Wellness

The spa has treatment rooms and a small gym, and an outdoor infinity pool and hot tub look out over the lake towards the mountains.

Weddings and events

The lodge can be booked for exclusive use, which suits small weddings and private celebrations, with ceremonies on the lawns above the lake.

Location

The lodge lies a few minutes by car from the centre of Queenstown. In winter the skifields of Coronet Peak and The Remarkables are close, and Cardrona and Treble Cone are within a day's drive. In summer the lake takes over, along with the walking tracks of the Routeburn and the wineries of the Gibbston Valley. Scenic flights and coach trips run to Milford Sound in Fiordland National Park, and Glenorchy, at the head of the lake, makes an easy excursion along the shore road.

Queenstown Airport, with flights from Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington and the main Australian cities, is about 20 minutes away. Among the luxury hotels of Queenstown, few have the lake so directly before them, and none carries a name so closely bound to the story of the water.