Luxury on Tap

New Zealanders – the Telegraph’s Lisa Grainger and her partner came to learn on a recent trip – “are masters of the understatement”. “They’re dry. Quietly confident. Down to earth, capable and can-do. And, despite their no-nonsense attitude to life, they really understand luxury – of the underplayed type. The kind of luxury that makes you grin from ear to ear because it’s so simple, so refreshingly unpretentious. The late English wit Sir Clement Freud once observed that he couldn’t give an opinion on New Zealand because when he was there, ‘it appeared to be shut’. That was obviously decades ago. The new, modern New Zealand is open – and in some style.” Charter the “perfectly restored” 1935 wooden launch Lady Gay or an Over the Top helicopter excursion; book an Allan Scott Marlborough vineyard tour; rent a private ski chalet in the Southern Alps; or indulge at Lake Whakatipu’s Matakauri spa – Grainger’s “favourite place in the country”.