Escape for the soul
A luxury break in the Bay of Islands becomes more than just a foretaste of summer for Bruce Munro and his wife.
IT was as winter deepened that we got it in to our heads to take a break in the Bay of Islands.
This was to be a splendid escape from the dreary monotony of months spent going to and from work under street lights; a vouchsafe in the heart of New Zealand’s hospitable, historic North of better days to come.
The Bay of Islands. The very name was a connotation cornucopia. Beaches, yachts, seafood and wine, extended family holidays, milliondollar baches with 10 milliondollar views, all set in the birthplace of our nation.
My connections, through my mother, dated back to the 1950s when her Hokianga dairyfarming family had taken midwinter holidays at Russell, presenting freshly caught snapper to the governorgeneral who holidayed two doors along from their borrowed bach at Long Beach. But it was a good decade since I had taken a break in the Bay of Islands. And my wife had last visited here as a 5yearold, staying in a tent and caravan with her parents and five siblings at a Paihia camping ground. The two of us were overdue a lavish, leisurely return visit.
As the Opua vehicle ferry carried us across the water to Okiato, on the southwestern arm of the Russell peninsula, the lateafternoon drizzle gave way to a bright rainbow; a multihued, heavenly gateway to the start of our holiday.
The Duke of Marlborough Hotel was a fitting introduction to the Bay of Islands, steeped as it is in local history. Including its two former incarnations, the
Duke, sitting on the Russell waterfront, has had a ringside seat to many significant moments in our history. They stretch all the way from this former capital of New Zealand being the debauched ‘‘hell hole of the Pacific’’ and the signing of the nation’s founding document — the hotel’s first owner Johnny Johnston had a hand in translating the Treaty into te reo Maori — to United States Western writer Zane Grey championing the region’s worldclass game fishing during the 1920s and (who could forget) our own future supermodel Rachel Hunter getting her first big break in a hair product advert filmed aboard Duran Duran lead singer Simon Le Bon’s yacht, right here in the Bay, during the mid1980s.
What a pleasure, each morning, to pull back the curtains of our spacious waterfront room and step on to our own balcony overlooking the gorgeous bay.
The Duke wears its years with a jaunty pride and a knowing smile, typified by the quirky historybending artwork of Lester Hall that adorns the walls of rooms, hallways and the classic colonialstyle restaurant complete with enticing open fireplace.
It was here we enjoyed fresh panfried hapuka, Romaine hearts salad with Matakana blue cheese and poached mandarin with white chocolate mousse. But dinner climaxed with the entree; tempura battered Waikare Inlet oysters. The appreciative noises my wife made with each crisp, soft, tasty mouthful said it all. The only words she uttered were as she finished the last one. ‘‘I think we need another halfdozen.’’
We spent our days in a leisurely way. Unwinding, enjoying the beauty of the area, engaging with its Maori, English and French history. The skies weren’t always clear; if it wasn’t drizzling then rain wasn’t too far away. But it was reliably warmer than home and everywhere we looked there seemed to be a rainbow.
One afternoon, we turned up at the Paihia Beach Resort & Spa for a couple’s massage. It isn’t difficult to be relaxed when lying in a warm, lowlit, nicely decorated room having fragrant oils rubbed deep into skin and tissue.
Another evening saw us back in Paihia, at Charlotte’s Kitchen, set over the water and beneath the stars at the end of the local wharf. Notwithstanding the delicious toasted goat feta salad and pork and prawn sui mai entrees and double chocolate mousse and orange ginger catalana desserts, Charlotte’s triumph was the slowroasted free range pork knuckle with red cabbage kraut, mustard seed potatoes and jus. Enormous, tender, flavorsome, with ample crackle, it is no wonder this has become the restaurant’s signature dish.
Fuller’s GreatSights’ Hole in the Rock cruise is de rigueur for a visit to the Bay of Islands. It’s also a great way to experience that this is indeed a bay of many, and beautiful, islands. Approaching Motukokako, when the angle is right, with its famous hole (just big enough to sail the catamaran through) visible, the island suddenly becomes a gigantic woolly mammoth lumbering towards shore. Once spotted, it is hard to see it any other way. Dolphins are also in the offing. But if none are apparent, passengers are able to get a voucher for a return visit.
Waitangi is a special spot. And not a small one. It is spread over several hectares of groomed grounds and native bush. From the museum and the waka taua, war canoes, to the carved meeting house and James Busby’s Treaty House, it is a suitably impressive living memorial to the site where two peoples became one nation. We were treated to a guided tour, a carving demonstration, a cultural performance, and, while standing on the expansive flagpole grounds overlooking water and islands, another gorgeous rainbow.
That evening we dined at Ake Ake Restaurant, a few minutes’ drive west of Kerikeri. After enjoying a very pleasant glass of organic 2018 Chambourcin in front of the fireplace, we took our seats for the goat’s cheese croquette and crumbed nobashi prawn entrees. The texture and flavour explosions continued with the mains — chargrilled yellow fin tuna and confit of duck — reaching a crescendo with the beautifully presented and equally delicious desserts; a dark chocolate delice with chantilly cream, grand marnier and orange sauce and a Greek yoghurt panna cotta with raspberry jelly, feijoa sorbet and pistachio praline.
Could this luxury break get any better? Yes it could, with two glorious nights spent at Donkey Bay Inn.
It is fitting that the entry to Donkey Bay Inn is through a canary yellow tunnel. Although it is only over the hill from Russell, this unique boutique hotel is in a parallel universe.
View the property from the air or a boat and you see a large, distinctive, glassfronted building with a living roof of native plants; an offthegrid luxury retreat set in to the bushclad hillside high above a pictureperfect sandy bay with an eastward view of Te Rawhiti inlet and the Bay’s larger islands.
Pass through the entranceway tunnel, however, as we did on an overcast afternoon, and you enter a mesmerising, opulent world where colour, curves and magnificence reign supreme. From the soaring ceilings and sumptuous, iconoclastic decor in the sitting room, bar and library to the stunning sea and sky views from all four bedrooms, including our Sky Fall suite, we knew we had been transported to somewhere special.
But the full effect is only felt by staying here.