LAKE EXPECTATIONS
When Taupo weather is against you, there is luxurious ous shelter close at hand, writes Winston Aldworth..
When Lake Taupo gets moody, she does it in cinematic style. As we arrived at Kinloch, on the beautiful northern shores of New Zealand’s biggest body of fresh water, sullen grey clouds hung over the lake, spitting grey showers on our intentions of rising early the next day to walk the
Tongariro Crossing.
I’d be lying if I said a big part of me wasn’t quietly pleased about the weather.
The cancellation of the stunning-yet-arduous hike gave our group of four more time to settle in and enjoy the luxury of The Lodge at
Kinloch at The Kinloch Club.
Perched on a hilltop looking down over the town and lakefront, the lodge has been designed with a Scottish castle in mind. The laird’s manor theme of the architecture stands true in the bulk and heft of the building, its sturdy frame and sharp edges and the suggestion of ramparts and turrets. Wisely the clout of the structure, designed by architect Andrew Patterson, is left to speak for itself — there are no mawkish kilts hanging on walls, no bagpipers to see in the dawn. Instead, the Virginia Fisher-designed interior is done in warm ambers and earthy hues. Contemporary art hangs on the walls from the entrance to the Great Room, where a blazing fire keeps winter’s bite at bay and guests recline on fur-covered vered couches.
There’s a startling contrast between the best of New Zealand’s luxury resorts and the visceral, life-taking rugged environment around us. Yes: there are bathtubs. And yes: they are (unless you’re some sort of celeb highflyer) more awesome than any bathtub in which you’ve rested your body in the past year.
At 6.30pm, guests gather for cocktails and canapes in The Bar, a corner room with grand views of the golf course and lake.
Maybe it’s the castle surrounds and mist-o’erthe-glen conditions that make me imagine a Scottish hint to the food. Chef Jean-Michel Poulot’s smoked pork, beef fillet, salmon gravlax anda chargrilled lamb loin would haveh worked on any table, but the d delicious meals seemed more apt in these surrounds.
The Frenchman has settled into KinlochKi pretty well. With a few daysda off work before our arrival, he caught more than 70 trout, releasingrele the lot of them. Catch one you yourself, however, and he’ll cook it up forf you.
Th The villas dotted along the hillside from the lodge’s main building are priva private enclaves of chill. Ours had a large, central area and two separate bedrooms,bedro each with private en suites and each suitably luxurious. It’s an ideal set up for two couples to share, a well-appointed communal hub, with your own private luxe space on the side.
King of this castle is Auckland investor John Sax, who bought the lodge in 2011 to round out a Central North Island holiday bach portfolio that already included Treetops in Rotorua. Nice gaffs, mate.
Guarding the castle keep at Kinloch is a dragon of a golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus. My golfing abilities are more Jack Black than Nicklaus, but I couldn’t resist having a prod at a course conceived by one of the sport’s greats.
The course is magnificent, the tussocks still braised from the late summer sun and the holes defended by a sometimes challenging array of sand traps — making a par is tough work for all but the serious-minded golfer.
I planted two balls in the water at the third before surely setting some sort of record on the fourth by losing a ball up a pinetree. Not near a pinetree, or beneath it, but up the thing. Rattled by rough slopes to the left of the hole, I sliced the sucker right and into the tree just 30m in front of me. A dozen birds scarpered from the branches; the ball stayed put. My little gift to future firewood choppers, years from now.
Enlivened by the course’s beauty, but humbled by its devilishness, I’d at least earned my taste of luxury back in the lodge.
We weren’t completely idle during our stay at Kinloch. With the Tongariro Crossing off the agenda, the four of us set out on the 14km trail from neighbouring Whakaipo Bay. Along the lush, gently graded W2K (Whakaipo to Kinloch) track, we were kept company by flitting piwakawaka and the occasional heavy rustle of kereru around the trees above us. At one point, we disturbed a couple of dozen swallows that blazed out from around us and circled the bush before settling on a spot less disturbed by huffing hikers.
You don’t have to walk. Kinloch’s guests can earn their luxury by cycling, fishing or playing the golf course. But for us this walk was perfect — the vantage points along the trail proved gorgeous, the isolation supreme and the mountainbikers coming the other way courteous. The four-hour walk was just enough exertion to make us feel we’d earned another bout of luxury back at the lodge.