Luxury

New tier of lodges Down Under

At the north end of Lake Wakatipu, not far from the back-in-time riverside village of Glenorchy, sits one of New Zealand's most luxurious examples of lodge accommodation. Nearby, a little further north up the Dart River, is an area known as Paradise - after the Paradise duck, but the stunning scenery and extraordinary peacefulness means this could well be Eden.

Tom Tusher certainly thought he'd found heaven on Earth there 34 years ago. At the time, the president and CEO of Levi-Strauss (now retired) was setting up an operation in Australia, and popped across the Tasman for a spot of fishing. In an inspired piece of prospecting, he bought the gold upon which his luxury lodge 'Blanket Bay' now sits.

Blanket Bay Lodge manager Philip Jenkins tells how it happened.

'Tom recognised that it was a unique spot and said 'let's put this in our back pocket and think about this in 20 years' time when I retire', he says. 'But due to his success, the plans for what was going to be built there grew from his own fishing bach (holiday home) to a private house to a Bed & Breakfast until we ended with where we're at today.'

Today, on the riverside land overlooking Wakatipu and the Humboldt mountain range, stands an impressive lodge that blends in subtly with the surroundings. It is built in naturally occurring schist and native timber, much of which is from old steamer wharf beams. The lodge's architect - Jim McLaughlin of Sun Valley, Idaho - designed Blanket Bay Lodge to have minimal impact on the pristine environment in which it sits. There are 13 rooms available in suites, 700sq ft chalets or 1200sq ft state rooms, all of which have heart-stopping views of the lake.

The lodge's name recalls the times in the nineteenth century when pioneer farmers sheared sheep on the shore of the bay under rough shelters stitched together from blankets.

They sleep a little more luxuriously at the lodge, of course, in king-size beds and suites with large decks and a steam room in the bathroom. They dine on such fare as venison and salmon prepared by head chef Stuart Munn, and international award-winning New Zealand wines.

Manager Phillip Jenkins bends over backwards to arrange for guests whatever they please, whether it be scenic helicopters flights (there's room for six helicopters on the helipad), fly-fishing, horse riding (the lodge has its own stables) or jet boating.
Although he could be said to organise events with military precision, his life has changed dramatically since his days in the British army. A Sandhurst graduate, he later spent 12 years involved in a yacht charter business.

'I'm a complete fraud when it comes to hotels,' he says, understating his abilities in typical British fashion. ‘My background is the British Army and then I was involved in a yacht charter business in the Mediterranean, Caribbean and around the world, for about 12 years. I spent that time driving fairly large yachts - but running a lodge is not dissimilar to that.'

However, Jenkins also played a key role in the early success of Queenstown's Nugget Point Resort, and later helped establish Wharekauhau in Featherston as a world-class lodge. He has been in New Zealand for around 20 years, but doesn't miss the lights of London. Despite its appearance of being in a remote area, Jenkins says Blanket Bay offers the best of both worlds to guests.

'Blanket Bay is far from stuck in the middle of nowhere, because it's very close to Queenstown.

'We're very close to where the action is.'

Guests would rarely spend the day at the lodge in fact, most choosing to explore the adventure activities for which Queenstown is renowned, whether that be a relaxing horseback ride, the Shotover or Dart river jet boat rides, skiing or the famed bungy jumping. Some just like to go for hikes or walks in the Glenorchy area to get away from it all, or take in a spot of fishing. Next door to the lodge is a 65,000-acre working sheep station, also owned by Tusher, and visitors can experience that too - usually on horseback.

Jenkins explains that over the last five years, the growth in luxury lodges has added another tier to the accommodation options, particularly for visitors from other countries.

'What's come along is a number of investors - and they're all American with the exception of Alex van Heeren, the owner of Huka Lodge, who is Dutch. There's Blanket Bay, The Lodge at Paratiho Farms and Wharekauhau, almost entirely owned by American investors. There's also Kauri Cliffs up in the Bay of Islands. Those lodges have set themselves apart from the others principally by the size of the investment put into them,' explains Jenkins.

'Because of the amount of money injected into their creation, obviously you have a series of buildings - of sheer physical assets - that are far more valuable than the other very successful and very good lodges. They now fall into a tier of their own and have risen above other luxury lodges simply because of the level of investment.' The media have dubbed them Super Lodges.

'The reason for the lack of New Zealand investors is that the lodges will never give you a sensible return on your investment,' says Jenkins. 'It's sheer economics. If you put $NZ20 million into a 15-bedroom property, there is no way you’ll get a return on that in a country of 4 million people. It's money you could easily put in a bank and you'll get significantly more of a return on it than you would by trying to run a lodge.

'So really it's a labour of love for foreign investors. If you look at Kauri Cliffs, Julian Robertson has built a wonderful golf course up there and that’s a labour of love. He recognised he had to build a lodge on it because he's not going to get people from New Zealand come and pay up to $NZ400 for a round of golf. He had to have a lodge there that people who had that sort of money could stay in.’ (Actually, the lodge was his sensible wife's idea.)

But how does the average New Zealander feel about Americans buying up the land? Most don't seem to mind the luxury accommodation being built, particularly with events like the America's Cup and the Tiger Woods golf event bringing the affluent Down Under. New Zealanders like to be thought of as more sophisticated than the gumboot and singlet-wearing, rugby-obsessed stereotype that has dominated in the past.

So far, the investors have been very aware of the significance of the environment to New Zealanders. Kauri Cliffs for example, has been planted out in native Kauri, far more than would have been there had the investor not built the lodge. Tusher himself was determined not to damage the environment he had so fallen in love with 34 years earlier.

'When the architect came down here he looked at it and quickly realised that logs [like the Sun Valley homes] weren’t going to work and changed them to schist,' explains Jenkins. 'His brief was the concept of very big homes in Sun Valley, with the same feel and look, but to produce it to fit into the New Zealand way.'

That said, Blanket Bay is still not the number one luxury accommodation spot for New Zealanders, with a high tariff in New Zealand dollar terms. And, it has to be said, they're not the target market.

'Our guests are mainly Americans,' says Jenkins. ‘They travel south during their winter. They’re also European, with a large percentage from England. During the New Zealand winter, most guests are Australians.

'New Zealanders form the lowest numbers of people that use the facility and there are a number of reasons for that. It's an expensive tariff, but, that said, companies have come in here and taken over the whole place for a weekend to celebrate a birthday or anniversary. Some New Zealand companies have also shouted their troops a week at the lodge. Huka Lodge is already doing that kind of local business, which has grown over the years. Ours will too, but the major difference is the cost of adding the flight to Queenstown.

'It all mounts up and I guess corporates think if they're going to spend that sort of money they could just as easily lie down on the beach in Vatulele [Fiji Island resort].'

Despite the lack of local guests, the lodge has high occupancy from November to Easter, and is fully booked over Christmas and New Year. Jenkins describes his role as similar to 'a one-armed paper hanger', particularly in the high season.

'In summer, we have about 40 people on the pay roll, including six chefs. For me, there's a high degree of guest contact and I would spend a lot of time with guests when they arrive, during the course of the day, and when they leave. I make sure what they want to do works, organising helicopters and fishing etc.'

His hard work has paid off, with Blanket Bay having gained international attention in Conde Nast’s hotel 'Hot List' in 2000, and winning Andrew Harper's Hideaway of the Year in December 2000 and again in 2005. The UK Sunday Times Travel Magazine named the lodge the Ultimate Retreat in 2004. The influential Rob Report placed Blanket Bay in its top 100 hotels worldwide in 2006.

The lodge doesn't advertise, but Jenkins admits to a precise approach to marketing, centering on the employment of a New York PR firm. A steady stream of travel writers has visited Blanket Bay since its opening in December 1999, all doing their bit to make the lodge known on the world stage. At any rate, the lodge sells itself - with friendly, attentive New Zealand staff, fine cuisine featuring fresh New Zealand produce, wine cellar, fitness spa and comforting log fires. The lodge's alliance with Small Luxury Hotels of the World has also proved useful, says Jenkins, giving the establishment 'a peg to hang its hat on'. It's hats off though - to Tom and Pauline Tusher - who have created one of New Zealand's most magnificent examples of luxury accommodation. And the San Francisco based couple even get to enjoy it and the fishing Tom originally came out for. They stay Down Under three to four months of the year, in accommodation built next to the lodge. Paradise.

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