Architecture
12 Key Features of Kiwi-Style Luxury Lodges
Borrow glamour from top NZ resorts to add touches of luxury to your home. It's easier than you might think...
Lodges in New Zealand are designed around getting busy in our great outdoors, with rolling farmland converted to luxury golf courses, up-scale spreads near mountains or tumbling rivers and lakes for hunting, skiing, hiking or fishing. Wilderness outside the window dictates the palette. But you won’t see wildebeest (we don’t really have much in the way of wildlife), and there’s no lolling on white sand beaches or converted relics of ancient country houses and quaint villages.
But our lodges are architect-designed to reflect local landscapes, with only the odd nod to historic (read: Victorian or settler) buildings, and a rugged durability that matches the changeable climate. And while you may not have the helicopter ferrying you from lodge to resort to beach house, there are still plenty of luxury lodge ideas you can copy at home, albeit on a smaller scale.
But our lodges are architect-designed to reflect local landscapes, with only the odd nod to historic (read: Victorian or settler) buildings, and a rugged durability that matches the changeable climate. And while you may not have the helicopter ferrying you from lodge to resort to beach house, there are still plenty of luxury lodge ideas you can copy at home, albeit on a smaller scale.
2. Let the landscape guide you
In Queenstown’s exclusive Preserve at Jack’s Point, materials and house structures must conform to the local style: pitched roof, natural colours, local materials.
TAKE IT HOME: You don’t want your house to be a cookie cutter lookalike of your neighbours’, but you should respect the local vernacular. Interpret traditional proportions, give a nod to existing materials, adhere to street set-backs, and tuck garage space off the pavements.
In Queenstown’s exclusive Preserve at Jack’s Point, materials and house structures must conform to the local style: pitched roof, natural colours, local materials.
TAKE IT HOME: You don’t want your house to be a cookie cutter lookalike of your neighbours’, but you should respect the local vernacular. Interpret traditional proportions, give a nod to existing materials, adhere to street set-backs, and tuck garage space off the pavements.
3. Drama in simplicity
Many stylish lodges are not complicated spaceships. In the South Island, they often mimic working sheep stations’ sheds.
TAKE IT HOME: Use simple materials such as corrugated iron or Onduline, include a basic pitched or shed roof, and a subtle disappearing colour. Nothing complicated, all class.
Many stylish lodges are not complicated spaceships. In the South Island, they often mimic working sheep stations’ sheds.
TAKE IT HOME: Use simple materials such as corrugated iron or Onduline, include a basic pitched or shed roof, and a subtle disappearing colour. Nothing complicated, all class.
4. Keep the planting natural
See how this new house in Bob’s Cove Queenstown virtually disappears into the tussocks? There’s no forcing nature here, just borrowing from it. Using local naturalised plants is eco-friendly. And if they survive in the wild, they’ll survive in your yard with no trouble.
See how this new house in Bob’s Cove Queenstown virtually disappears into the tussocks? There’s no forcing nature here, just borrowing from it. Using local naturalised plants is eco-friendly. And if they survive in the wild, they’ll survive in your yard with no trouble.
Here at Queenstown’s Millbrook Resort on the edge of a golf course, native tussocks blend with hardy lavenders right to the edge of the green lawns.
TAKE IT HOME: Try an entirely native and natural front yard – no lawn to mow, no wasteful watering or weed killing. Check with your local council for recommended endemic species.
TAKE IT HOME: Try an entirely native and natural front yard – no lawn to mow, no wasteful watering or weed killing. Check with your local council for recommended endemic species.
5. Blur the boundaries
Original settlers in New Zealand quickly learned that verandahs made the most of the benign climate. When this house (one of the earliest in the historic town of Russell, Bay of Islands) was renovated into a luxury lodge, Tahapuke, the owners made sure to keep the gracious proportions, slipping out deckchairs for modern-day lounging.
TAKE IT HOME: Extend an existing porch into a fully fledged outdoor room, borrowing period-appropriate details in posts and balustrades.
Outdoor living rooms come of age
Original settlers in New Zealand quickly learned that verandahs made the most of the benign climate. When this house (one of the earliest in the historic town of Russell, Bay of Islands) was renovated into a luxury lodge, Tahapuke, the owners made sure to keep the gracious proportions, slipping out deckchairs for modern-day lounging.
TAKE IT HOME: Extend an existing porch into a fully fledged outdoor room, borrowing period-appropriate details in posts and balustrades.
Outdoor living rooms come of age
6. Create unforgettable arrivals
The entrance lobby of this private Hawkes Bay lodge offers a stop-you-in-your-tracks welcome: an avenue of trees, striking lamps, table, mirror, and fresh flowers in a dramatic arrangement.
TAKE IT HOME: Don’t turn your entrance into a dumping place for shoes, bags and paperwork. Make a slot in the kitchen or office for the outbound mess and style your entry table with your best pieces, lights that invite people in and fresh flowers.
The entrance lobby of this private Hawkes Bay lodge offers a stop-you-in-your-tracks welcome: an avenue of trees, striking lamps, table, mirror, and fresh flowers in a dramatic arrangement.
TAKE IT HOME: Don’t turn your entrance into a dumping place for shoes, bags and paperwork. Make a slot in the kitchen or office for the outbound mess and style your entry table with your best pieces, lights that invite people in and fresh flowers.
7. Celebrate eat-in kitchens
North Island’s Wharekauhau Lodge offers a garden room for breakfasts and brunches. Brick pavers, walls of glass and high, beamed ceilings bring light and views of the garden into the room, with a glamorous cooker for the chef to whip up omelettes. Naturally, back stage, there’s a hard-working commercial kitchen and pantry.
See more of the lodge here
TAKE IT HOME: Hide the mess of prep in a butler’s pantry, freeing the kitchen for the guest-friendly displays of cooking prowess, baskets of fresh produce, even some fine art.
North Island’s Wharekauhau Lodge offers a garden room for breakfasts and brunches. Brick pavers, walls of glass and high, beamed ceilings bring light and views of the garden into the room, with a glamorous cooker for the chef to whip up omelettes. Naturally, back stage, there’s a hard-working commercial kitchen and pantry.
See more of the lodge here
TAKE IT HOME: Hide the mess of prep in a butler’s pantry, freeing the kitchen for the guest-friendly displays of cooking prowess, baskets of fresh produce, even some fine art.
8. Use dramatic finishes
In Kinloch lodge at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Resort, Patterson Architects and New Zealand’s doyen of lodge design, Virginia Fisher, nodded to the Scottish heritage of Kinloch’s name with a luxurious modern interpretation of a Scottish castle. Dark rough-sawn oak panelling on the walls complements a lush palette of velvet, fox fur, brass, copper, slate and wool.
TAKE IT HOME: Not every room has to be light, bright and facing the outdoors. Create a cosy dark room for winter curling up or intimate dinners.
Infuse your home with Hollywood-style glamour
In Kinloch lodge at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Resort, Patterson Architects and New Zealand’s doyen of lodge design, Virginia Fisher, nodded to the Scottish heritage of Kinloch’s name with a luxurious modern interpretation of a Scottish castle. Dark rough-sawn oak panelling on the walls complements a lush palette of velvet, fox fur, brass, copper, slate and wool.
TAKE IT HOME: Not every room has to be light, bright and facing the outdoors. Create a cosy dark room for winter curling up or intimate dinners.
Infuse your home with Hollywood-style glamour
9. Acknowledge heritage
Many of the newly built lodges in our gorgeous country spreads acknowledge New Zealand’s rural heritage, particularly sheep stations. Millbrook, a lodge community on the edge of Queenstown, uses high ceilings and trusses to create a rugged aesthetic.
Many of the newly built lodges in our gorgeous country spreads acknowledge New Zealand’s rural heritage, particularly sheep stations. Millbrook, a lodge community on the edge of Queenstown, uses high ceilings and trusses to create a rugged aesthetic.
Features extend to using recycled timbers, as well as steel and peg details that borrow from farm buildings and suggest a hand-crafted quality.
TAKE IT HOME: Expose the underpinnings of your new build or strip back added ceilings to expose the original workmanship of your renovated house. You may need engineering advice to ensure structural stability – and remember to add insulation between the roof and raked ceiling to keep temperatures comfortable year round.
TAKE IT HOME: Expose the underpinnings of your new build or strip back added ceilings to expose the original workmanship of your renovated house. You may need engineering advice to ensure structural stability – and remember to add insulation between the roof and raked ceiling to keep temperatures comfortable year round.
10. Use vistas to lead you on
The country spread of Nelson’s luxury Paratiho Lodge (yours for a mere $20 million) spreads out over 770 hectares with four lakes, a croquet lawn, a helipad, and putting green, as well as the obligatory pool and tennis court. Hedges and paths lead visitors from one area to another, encouraging exploration. Some, as seen here, are as casual as stepping stones set in an immaculate lawn in an avenue of deciduous trees, which lead the eye to the surrounding hills.
TAKE IT HOME: Lead visitors from the front to the back of the house. If your side yard is skinny, create enticing stepping stone walks, or pergolas for climbing flowers and fruit.
Questions to ask before laying stepping stones
The country spread of Nelson’s luxury Paratiho Lodge (yours for a mere $20 million) spreads out over 770 hectares with four lakes, a croquet lawn, a helipad, and putting green, as well as the obligatory pool and tennis court. Hedges and paths lead visitors from one area to another, encouraging exploration. Some, as seen here, are as casual as stepping stones set in an immaculate lawn in an avenue of deciduous trees, which lead the eye to the surrounding hills.
TAKE IT HOME: Lead visitors from the front to the back of the house. If your side yard is skinny, create enticing stepping stone walks, or pergolas for climbing flowers and fruit.
Questions to ask before laying stepping stones
11. Bring on the night
Resort guests often arrive at night. Greenwood Associates landscapers made sure there was dramatic lighting and stand-out features to guide tired travellers to the right entrance (as well as the odd spot to stop and admire the architecture and surroundings) of this ski resort in Cardrona.
TAKE IT HOME: Plan for lighting to be more than just a sensor-operated security beam. Walk your garden at night to find features to highlight, and potential obstacles such as wobbly paths that might need illuminating.
Resort guests often arrive at night. Greenwood Associates landscapers made sure there was dramatic lighting and stand-out features to guide tired travellers to the right entrance (as well as the odd spot to stop and admire the architecture and surroundings) of this ski resort in Cardrona.
TAKE IT HOME: Plan for lighting to be more than just a sensor-operated security beam. Walk your garden at night to find features to highlight, and potential obstacles such as wobbly paths that might need illuminating.
12. Bathe in splendour
A lodge stay would not be complete without a soaking tub, preferably one with a view. At this Waiheke resort house, floor-to-ceiling louvres, plus a shower tucked beside, give bathers the best view of country and sea.
TAKE IT HOME: If your bathroom doesn’t face a view, open up your bathroom with a wall of glass (safety specified, of course) to a private courtyard. Add a green wall or Japanese-style courtyard for your own special views.
Soothing bathtubs in rejuvenating settings
A lodge stay would not be complete without a soaking tub, preferably one with a view. At this Waiheke resort house, floor-to-ceiling louvres, plus a shower tucked beside, give bathers the best view of country and sea.
TAKE IT HOME: If your bathroom doesn’t face a view, open up your bathroom with a wall of glass (safety specified, of course) to a private courtyard. Add a green wall or Japanese-style courtyard for your own special views.
Soothing bathtubs in rejuvenating settings
TELL US
What ideas have you brought home from your favourite lodges or resorts? Share photos with other Houzzers by uploading them in the Comments below.
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What ideas have you brought home from your favourite lodges or resorts? Share photos with other Houzzers by uploading them in the Comments below.
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Rugged schist, in flat pavers or stacked dry-stone walls, is the signature material in Central Otago and Westland – because that’s where it comes from. Mountain schist at the beach house? Not so good. But here at Lake Wanaka, the ecology and spectacular environment dictate it is zoned ‘outstanding landscape’, meaning the only materials that should be used are those that match the landscape.
TAKE IT HOME: If you love the look of natural stone, talk to your builder or landscaper about what’s available from local quarries to make your house and garden look as if it has gently emerged from its landscape.