Staying Atop an Alpine Meadow

“Whare Kea Lodge pilot James Ford is gunning his helicopter up a wide, verdant valley on a perfect summer’s day,” Toronto Star travel editor Jim Byers describes. “He climbs up and up and clears a stubby ridge of rock and there they are: the sky-high tips of the Southern Alps almost within my grasp. I climb out of the helicopter near a modern mountain chalet. Martyn Myer, a New Zealand retail king and keen adventurer, founded the chalet as part of the nearby Whare Kea Lodge a few years ago. ‘He and his friends used to go tramping and found it a bit rough as they got older, so they built the cabin,’ explains Whare Kea Lodge manager Pamela Simpson. A Relais and Chateaux property, Whare Kea lodge has four deluxe rooms and two suites. The views out over the lake and up towards the mountains are stunning.”