New Zealand

Seascape at Annandale

10

The spray carried by the cool sea breeze meant the bonfire wouldn’t start. Then guilt began to take hold: guest services manager Caroline Hutchinson had gone to the trouble of having wood gathered from the rocky beach after it was mentioned a fire would help embody the “castaway” concept that architect Andrew Patterson envisioned for Seascape at Annandale (hotel.qantas.com. au/annandale). The property’s private chef, Rodrigo Marín Rost, even brought marshmallows – no small feat when getting here involves driving for more than 90 minutes on winding country roads from Christchurch Airport then another 40 minutes along gravel roads hugging rugged coastline. (Most guests arrive via an 11-minute helicopter ride.)

Solace is found in a glass of Louis Roederer champagne, enjoyed in the jacuzzi under the stars next to a gas fire, both of which roar to life at the press of a button. Nearly everything at Seascape can be done by pressing buttons – impressive considering that it took 16 kilometres of underground cable to connect the electricity.

The angular interior has concrete floors and windows stretching to the ceiling, with views of a sheltered bay and the blue Pacific beyond, yet it feels cosy. Maybe it’s the natural stone walls, indoor gas fire or that the space is far larger than it appears but seems to burrow into the hill it juts from. The feeling’s magnified by the ultrasoft bed as wide as it is long, next to which rests a book called The World’s Sexiest Bedrooms (Seascape is featured).

With sinewy grass, wrinkled hills and water all around, you can’t help but feel like a modern-day castaway – it’s a “cove within a cove”, says Hutchinson. Robinson Crusoe could probably be tempted to stay even if he couldn’t get the fire going.