Sweeping down the Staircase for Tea at Otahuna

A stay at the five-star Otahuna Lodge located in Tai Tapu, Canterbury “will give you a tantalising taste of landed gentry living”, according to travel writer, New Zealander Amanda Jones for the Los Angeles Times.

“In March, I travelled to Canterbury with my mother. We spent three glorious nights at Otahuna having our baths drawn, being served tea and cake on the porch, swimming in a pool fit for an Evelyn Waugh novel and sipping Champagne promptly at 7 p.m. We also got to say things to the steward such as, ‘I’m off to dress, Ben. I’ll be down for cocktails in time.’

“In 2005, Hall Cannon and Miles Refo, New Yorkers seeking a change of pace, were exploring the world looking for their next abode when they came across Otahuna. They’d fallen for the ‘grand and extraordinary beauty of New Zealand’ and its ‘almost weirdly honest and easygoing people,’ as Cannon describes them.

“The two – Cannon’s background is in Manhattan loft development and Refo’s in marketing – had never considered hospitality, but the house ‘was crying out to be reawakened, brought back to its former glory and shared,’ Cannon said.

“We spent an inordinate amount of time eating what I consider the finest food in New Zealand. One of the most celebrated aspects of Otahuna is its chef, Jimmy McIntyre. McIntyre, who had travelled the world cooking in top-notch kitchens, missed home and returned to Canterbury, finding his way to the fertile, serene Otahuna Lodge.”