Lime Tree Lodge

Hosts Pauline and John Trotter are quite possibly the world’s best hosts. They exude effortless conviviality and warmth, their boutique lodge a winning mix of relaxed elegance and country verve. The latter owes to the pair’s farming background. They moved to Wanaka after selling Kaiwarua Station (a 6000-hectare high-country affair) in South Canterbury. After mustering 14,000 stock units on horseback and keeping mustering gangs happy, lavishing care and chat on lodge guests is a doddle. Now living just a sneeze away from Wanaka township, they still keep it country. Their lodge is set on four hectares of land (room enough for sheep paddocks, a small orchard, vegetable and herb gardens, a five-hole pitch-andputt golf course, croquet lawn, pétanque court, swimming pool and heli-pad). In autumn, you can have a spa soak to the lusty accompaniment of stag serenades.

You may even get to feed one of the lodge’s pet lambs a bottle of milk (by the time this goes to press, the lodge favourite Cindy will be a solemn youth, but she fair galloped bottle-wards with boingy-tailed delight when we visited). The hosts can arrange all manner of outdoorsy adventures for you, but many guests report a strong disinclination to set foot outside this luxury-plus lodge, especially if Pauline is in full canapémaking flight. 672 Ballantyne Road,

(03) 443 7305, limetreelodge.co.nz