It is only a 20-minute drive from our home in Christchurch, but coming up the long driveway of the Otahuna Lodge in rural Canterbury is like stepping into a noble English country estate suspended in time and space.
Fields of daffodils, a large manicured lawn, a lake and blossoming trees take up only a fraction of the 12 hectares of land surrounding New Zealand’s largest private historical residence.
The owners of the category-1 listed heritage homestead, Miles Refo and Hall Cannon, welcome my husband and me before operations manager Ryan Jackson gives us a tour of the property.
The homestead was built in 1895.
From the owners to the chef and kitchen staff, everyone is smiling, calls us by our first names and makes us feel cared for. Up to 30 staff look after the property and gardens, and a maximum of 14 guests. Many have worked at Otahuna for years, if not decades.
Jackson tells us politician and philanthropist Sir Heaton Rhodes built Otahuna as a wedding gift for his young bride Jessie in 1895. The home was designed in a Queen Anne style with its irregular shape, romantic rooflines and elaborate architectural detail. Rhodes lived at Otahuna for 60 years until his death at the age of 95 in 1956.
Miles Refo (left) and Hall Cannon renovated the home extensively to turn it into a luxury lodge.
Various owners turned the home into a school, a monastery and a commune before Refo and Cannon bought it in 2006. The respect the pair put into the property’s renovation then, and after it suffered extensive damage during the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes, shines through the careful preservation of the old character – the Japanese Kinkarakami leather wallpaper remains in the ornate dining room – and the additions of new features such as a veritable art gallery’s worth of paintings on the walls.
Refo and Cannon, who moved here from New York, furnished the home with bespoke furniture and commissioned NZ artists for the paintings.
Each corner of the grand home is adorned with bouquets of fresh flowers picked on the property, books or bowls of fruit. Every room tells a story.
The old mixes with the new in the dining room.
The baby grand piano in the drawing room has an interesting origin, having arrived in NZ on HMS Renown in 1927. The Duke and Duchess of York (the future King George VI and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother) were the principals associated with this sailing and Rhodes was appointed the "minister in attendance" on the royal couple for their month-long visit.
Vintage firearms hanging in the bathroom remind us this used to be a gun room. The patio outside the kitchen was created using bricks from the 11 chimneys that collapsed in the 2010 quakes. In the lounge, a tall bar was tailormade by a local carpenter.
The baby grand piano arrived in NZ in 1927 with the Duke and Duchess of York.
We climb a hand-carved kauri staircase to find our room upstairs, with its nine-metre verandah overlooking the expansive gardens below. We accept an offer to bring our drinks outside so we can soak in the view and tranquillity, under cover from the pouring rain.
Inside the bedroom is grand yet cosy with an open fire, plush carpets, heavy curtains and comfortable furniture. The bathroom used to be a bedroom which was converted into an ensuite because of heritage rules prohibiting moving walls or ripping out doors. It is as large as the bedroom and has its own open fire, a deep, freestanding bath, a large shower and heated tiles.
You can bathe in front of an open fire in the Verandah Suite.
The Verandah Suite we occupy is known for hosting the Duke of York during the 1927 tour. His eldest grandson Charles, now the King, and wife Camilla are believed to have stayed at the lodge in 2019, too, but the owners would not say – privacy is of the essence at a luxury lodge.
Homemade chocolate brownies sit in a jar on a bedside table and are hard to resist even knowing a four-course meal will start in a couple of hours.
We sink into the deep armchairs – the stresses of the day vanishing – and peruse the glossy booklet found on the desk by the bed that showcases excursions available, from an e-bike tour of Banks Peninsula to a helicopter trip to Mt Cook. For those who wish to stay in, massages, garden tours, cooking lessons and picnics in the garden are also on offer. 
The Verandah Suite, where the future King George VI slept in 1927.
The rain is not letting up but we want to see the gardens so we go downstairs and find spotless gumboots of all sizes and sturdy umbrellas by the front door.
We walk around the little paths at the top of the British-style great lawn towards the ornamental lake and the lodge’s famous daffodil field (home to more than a million bulbs) via little bridges, ponds and camellia beds. The New Zealand Gardens Trust has recognised the Otahuna grounds as a "garden of national significance".
Trees blossoming in the Dutch garden.
Coming back the other side through woodlands, past the majestic oaks, cedars, wattles and poplars fringing the grass, we enter the “Dutch garden” featuring geometric patterns filled with densely planted, colourful flowers enclosed by clipped Buxus hedges. Smells of lavender and pine mix with the rain as bellbirds sing.
It’s too cold for a dip in the swimming pool, which also features a spa, and too wet for a game of croquet on the games lawn, so we head back inside for the pre-dinner drinks and canapes by the fire in the drawing room.
The warm and inviting drawing room.
We arrive a bit early so my husband takes to the piano while I sit on one of the plush sofas. The fire is crackling and I can hear birds chirping outside and the rain falling softly.
Another couple arrive. Like us, they live in Christchurch and have left their children with the grandparents to come here. They are spending a couple of nights at the lodge and plan a helicopter ride to Kaikōura the next day as well as a bike ride in the Kaituna valley. Drink in hand, they look suitably relaxed.
An older couple from Australia join us. They have been here the whole week and it’s their last night. They rave about the canapes chef Jimmy McIntyre is about to bring and the dinners they enjoyed each night.
We ask them if they went out and about to explore the region much, but they say they found the lodge and gardens so relaxing they mostly stayed in and enjoyed being pampered by the staff. Their verdict? “Fabulous,” they respond in unison. They came here to rest after a stressful few months at home and are feeling completely refreshed.
Chef Jimmy McIntyre uses food grown on the property to craft his menus.
McIntyre, who has worked as the property’s executive chef for 20 years, making him the longest-serving lodge chef in NZ, arrives with the first canape of salmon on sourdough. It’s so exquisite I wish I could eat the whole tray. More canapes follow, each leaving us wanting for more.
Then each couple is taken to a different dining location: the Australian guests are eating in the library, the other Christchurch couple at the large dining-room table, and we sit in the turret adjacent to the drawing room.
The first course is prawn bisque, a refined mix of flavours with its avocado, lime and Chipotle prawns adding some texture to the velvety soup. Sommelier Tim Connolly does the pairing with premium NZ wines from the cellar, regaling us with stories about each pour’s origin.
Next, we have fresh brill kokoda – a sort of ceviche – with iceberg lettuce. It is incredibly fresh and each mouthful bursts with a complex mix of herbs from the property. McIntyre shapes the menu to follow the seasons and what is available on the land.
The turret is one of several private dining locations available.
He uses locally sourced food – much of it grown in the lodge's orchard and potager, which together boast 125 types of organic fruits as well as mushrooms, nuts and vegetables. There are even pigs on site providing cured meats.
The third course is roast venison loin with braised shank, roast parsnip & confit garlic purée, spring vegetables and pinot noir jus. The meat is cooked to perfection and the vegetables are incredibly soft and buttery.
We ask for the fire in our bedroom to be lit (guests aren’t allowed to light it themselves) as we finish our dessert trio of Granny Smith apple with tarte tatin and crème brûlée – a perfect combo of tart and creamy flavours. 
The apple trio dessert is a great combination of sweet and tart flavours.
Walking upstairs, we take in the little details that make the house feel so luxurious. In the large space in front of our bedroom sits a sideboard with cups, a kettle, a coffee machine, jars of homemade baking, lollies and chocolate and a fridge stacked with soft drinks. We were told earlier to order our coffee from the kitchen if we wanted a proper flat white at any time while it was open.
Our bed looks more inviting than ever after the turndown service. Staff not only lit the fire, they also popped a sheepskin rug on each side of the bed, a carafe of water on each bedside table and a “bedtime story” on the bed – a printed piece of paper telling a story about the house’s history. It’s our first time in a gold-standard Relais & Châteaux lodge, and we are impressed.
We wake up the next day still pretty full from previous night’s dinner, but keen for breakfast in the large country-style kitchen, opening onto a patio covered in potted tulips.
Eating in the breakfast kitchen is less formal than dinner.
Nikki Dickson welcomes us and takes our coffee order. She assures us that chef Ryan Prouting, in the adjacent fully kitted commercial kitchen, can make us anything we want – on top of the large spread of homemade breads, muffins and bagels, fresh fruit, muesli, yogurt and preserves crowding the kitchen counter.
We go for eggs benedict with salmon – remembering the previous night’s canapes. The eggs, collected from the property's hens, are cooked to perfection and are slightly runny, just the way I like them. The potato rosti they are served on is divine, crackling and soft at the same time. It’s hands down the best eggs benedict we’ve ever had.
When Prouting comes to collect our empty plates, he asks if we want anything else. “Waffles, maybe,” he suggests. But, alas, we are full and it is almost time to leave.
Wishing we could live here permanently – the house and garden are, of course, wonderful, but truly what makes us wish we could stay longer is the level of service provided by the caring staff – we head to our car, which has been driven to the front door for us and loaded up with our luggage.
Driving back to Christchurch is like waking up from a dream of a different time and place.
● Otahuna Lodge pricing starts at $2,400 per room in winter and $4,600 in summer. All rates include pre-dinner drinks and canapes, a four-course degustation dinner, matched wine pairings with each course, complimentary laundry service, full use of all lodge facilities and GST. The lodge will be shut from July 1 to Aug 22 next year for its annual break.
● The writer and her husband were guests of Otahuna Lodge. For more information, visit otahuna.co.nz.
● All images: Otahuna Lodge.
