Otahuna Lodge

This intimate lodge is foodie paradise.

• The lodge’s Verandah Suite has a huge porch overlooking the garden and pond.
• The location offers easy access to the Banks Peninsula. Take a boat ride around Akaroa to see rare dolphins and seals.

Set in the rolling hills outside Christchurch, Otahuna is an elegant country house retreat. When Americans Hall Cannon and Miles Refo purchased the property, the largest historic house in all of New Zealand, they kept many of the period details, but updated rooms with modern comforts like iPod docks and oversized bathrooms with soaking tubs. With only seven suites, each unique, Otahuna feels very much like a private home.

The lodge is blessed with an extraordinary chef and he and his team spend their days dreaming up new delights: freshly baked rosemary focaccia, house cured prosciutto, hand rolled pasta. One reason everything is so delicious is that so many of the ingredients come from the orchard and potager behind the lodge, where they grow more than 120 varieties of fruits, vegetables, nuts and mushrooms, including heirloom tomatoes, kaffir limes, mulberries and porcinis. Meals are eaten family style in the light-filled modern kitchen or the formal dining room. The staff is very attentive, and guests feel wonderfully spoiled.