Kaikoura, New Zealand

Hapuku Lodge & Tree Houses

Price per night from$622.53

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (NZD1,039.13), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Architectural meets arboreal

Setting

Deer-dotted pastures and peaks

Rather than ever-taller glass-and-steel edifices, more imaginative sci-fi authors might envision Hapuku Lodge & Tree Houses as our inevitable future: angular, wood-built, architectural wonders poking out from the canopy in a land far removed from pollution-choked cities. The good news is, its whale-watching opportunities, mountainous backdrop, deer park, alpine-style dining room, pool house and sauna are available to you right here in the present.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A pre-dinner cocktail each

Facilities

Photos Hapuku Lodge & Tree Houses facilities

Need to know

Rooms

Twelve, including four suites.

Check–Out

11am, but flexible subject to availability. Check-in, 2pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £567.03 (NZ$1,195), including tax at 15 per cent.

More details

Rates include breakfast and dinner.

Also

In-room spa treatments are also available if all that monumental nature gets the better of you.

At the hotel

DVD library, free WiFi throughout, guest Mac computer, hot tub, sauna, gardens. In rooms: flatscreen TV, DVD and CD players, iPod dock, minibar, Evolu, Living Nature and Lavish toiletries.

Our favourite rooms

For a cool canopy experience, the modern, wood-clad Tree House Rooms, set in a manuka grove remote from the main lodge, are a must. The five one-bedroom Upper Branch Rooms, perched 10 metres up in the treetops, are the most romantic and private with wraparound windows ensuring neck-swivelling views of mountains, sea and roaming deer from the spa bath, seating nook (complete with wood fire) and deck. Smaller, more affordable Lower Branch Rooms sit below, or book into one of the Family Tree Houses, an interconnected hybrid of the two.

Poolside

An outdoor swimming 25-metre lap pool with poolside seating. Hot tub, sauna and pool house (with showers and a changing room) are due to be completed in the near future.

Packing tips

Binoculars for deer spotting and whale watching; a head for heights if you're staying in a Tree House room.

Also

The lodge’s knockout 600-hectare grounds, between the towering Kaikoura Seaward Mountains and surf-lashed Mangamaunu Bay, include the family farm’s oil-producing olive grove and deer stud.

Children

Welcome in the Family Tree Houses and Olive House Apartment; only those over 12 in the main lodge rooms. Baby cots available for NZ$50 a night (free for under-3s); extra beds NZ$262.50 a night including breakfast (both subject to availability on request).

Overview

Welcome in the Family Tree Houses and standalone Olive House Apartment; only those over 12 in the main lodge rooms. Baby cots available for NZ$50 a night; extra beds NZ$115, including breakfast.

Best for

12-year olds and over.

Recommended rooms

Kids of all ages are welcome in the Family Tree Houses and Olive House Apartment; only those over 12 in the main lodge rooms.

Activities

Mountain biking in and around the hotel's grounds and gardens should prove a hit, as well as nature walks. Kids at both Bambi and 'birds and bees' stages of development will love the lodge's own deer stud and there are majestic beaches nearby for running about, paddling and the odd game of sandy cricket.

Swimming pool

There's an outdoor pool and hot tub for kids to enjoy, although it's not solely for children.

Meals

Children are allowed in the hotel's restaurant at all times, and a children's menu is available. Hapuku is happy to provide high chairs, packed lunches or heat up food or milk for babies on request. The Olive House Apartment has its own kitchen if you'd rather self-cater.

No need to pack

Baby cots, which are available for NZ$50 a night; high chairs.

Also

Extra beds for older kids cost NZ$115, including breakfast.

Sustainability efforts

The lodge uses solar power, sources its food from local farmers, rangers and fishermen with sustainable practices, and has an ongoing campaign to restore the natural habitat (1,400 new native trees have been planted on the grounds to date).

Food and Drink

Photos Hapuku Lodge & Tree Houses food and drink

Top Table

There are a couple of window tables with easy-on-the-eye views of the deer paddock and mountains; or grab a pew at the chefs’ work counter beside the open kitchen to watch them whip up your meal.

Dress Code

Refined yet relaxed – natural tones chime in with the surf and turf setting.

Hotel restaurant

The lodge’s open-plan dining room has a relaxed alpine feel, with simple wood furniture, timber floors and a double-sided fireplace (in summer, eat in the garden). Chef Fiona Read was a finalist on MasterChef 2011: expect ambitious dishes, featuring Hapuku Farm organic greens and oven-roasted Kaikoura crayfish plucked live from the hotel’s own tank.

Hotel bar

Make yourself a martini or a Manhattan and then relax on couches by a circular stone fireplace in the lodge’s spacious lounge and dining area. Open 8am–1am.

Last orders

The bar is open 8am–1am, with cocktail shaking bustle from 6pm–7.30pm; dinner is served 6.30pm–9.30pm.

Room service

Available 11am–9.30pm in Lodge Suites only, with a menu mirroring the restaurant’s lunch and dinner offerings. You can also pre-order picnics.

Location

Photos Hapuku Lodge & Tree Houses location
Address
Hapuku Lodge & Tree Houses
State Highway 1 at Station Road
Kaikoura
Kaikoura 7371
New Zealand

The hotel is near the small coastal town of Kaikoura, on the east coast of New Zealand's South Island, between Christchurch and Blenheim.

Planes

Three airports are within reach of Hapuku Lodge & Tree Houses: tiny Kaikoura airport is 15 minutes' drive away; the larger international Christchurch Airport (www.christchurchairport.co.nz), to the south, is 2.5 hours' drive and Blenheim Airport (www.blenheim airport.co.nz), to the north, is 1.5 hour's drive.

Trains

Tranz Scenic’s TranzCoastal service runs daily between Picton and Christchurch, stopping off at Kaikoura, departing from Picton at 1pm and Christchurch at 7am (www.tranzscenic.co.nz). Kaikoura Station is just 10 kilometres from the hotel.

Automobiles

The town of Kaikoura is a 10-minute drive from the hotel.

Worth getting out of bed for

It’s just a 20-minute walk down to acclaimed surf beach Mangamaunu Bay, or explore the area on one of the hotel’s free mountain bikes. The small eco-marine town of Kaikoura is a 15-minute drive away and is the hub for aquatic activities including whale watching (www.whalewatch.co.nz) and dolphin encounters (www.dolphinencounter.co.nz).

Local restaurants

The historic 1885-built Pier Hotel, right on the waterfront at 1 Avoca Street, is now a cosy gastropub with an open fire, dishing up robust local seafood and pub favourites (+64 (0)3 319 5037; www.thepierhotel.co.nz).

Local cafés

At 33 Beach Road in Kaikoura, Hislop’s Café, which doubles as an organic wholefoods store, mills its own flour for its freshly baked goods. Pop in for breakfast, lunch or dinner to sample its vibrant local menu and quaffable selection of regional wines (+64 (0)3 319 6971; www.hislops-wholefoods.co.nz).

Local bars

Perched on a limestone cliff, boutique Kaikoura Winery has amazing ocean and mountain views. Two kilometres south of Kaikoura at 140 State Highway 1, it’s open daily for tastings of its award-winning wines and tours of an underground cellar (+64 (0)3 319 7966).

Reviews

Photos Hapuku Lodge & Tree Houses reviews
Shelly Horton

Anonymous review

By Shelly Horton, Star reporter

This review of Hapuku Lodge & Tree House in Kaikoura is taken from our guidebook Mr & Mrs Smith Hotel Collection Australia/New Zealand.

Look, I’m not very good at packing lightly; instead of a weekend’s worth of clothes I have a month’s supply. A fact I instantly regret as Mr Smith and I lug four suitcases up three flights of stairs to our room. Luckily a plate of baked-that-day biscuits is waiting for us as a reward for our work-out. There is no number on the door – our room is called Kotare, after a native bird, which kind of makes sense considering it’s a bit like a nest: it’s one of the five treetop rooms. There is also a lodge at Hapuku, but surely the only reason you’d stay on ground level is if you’re recovering from a hip replacement.

Our room is luxurious, with an inviting king-size bed in the centre, and ridiculously impressive views. Wander to one end and there is a fireplace with two comfy chairs and full vistas of snowcapped mountains; a meander to the far side leads you to the ensuite, which looks out to the sea. There is something very sexy about the bathroom area. Mr Smith is so enamoured of the heated slate floor he lays his clothes on it so they’re nice and toasty when he puts them on. The double spa has cushioned headrests, but for the voyeur (not mentioning any names, Mr Smith), the shower is completely encased in glass and looks over a privately owned field to the ocean. ‘Only the sheep can see you,’ a staff member assures us, ‘and they’ve seen it all before.’

Jaws removed from the floor, Mr Smith and I take off to explore the area. The first thing we see is a colony of seals on the rocks. We decide the collective noun should be a snuggle of seals, as they make the most precarious rock look comfy. Next, we visit Kaikoura Winery. I’m willing to wager there aren’t many wineries where you can sip booze while whale watching. Yep, somehow seeing a frolicking pod of blue whales makes the chardonnay taste sweeter.

Happy with our sea-life encounters, we head back to the lodge for dinner. All the guests meet for a pre-supper drink and you can mingle as much or as little as you like. There are only three other residents tonight and, as Mr Smith also goes by the name Captain Have-a-Chat, we’re soon all merrily swapping anecdotes.

Now to the food: it is quite simply exceptional. None of that gourmet guff where you’re given a massive plate and need a magnifying glass to find the part you eat. The fresh creations are elegantly presented and the portions are man-sized. We choose the eye fillet for two and there is so much left over that the chef offers to make it up as sandwiches with lashings of mustard the next day. Now that’s service.

Full of top tenderloin and gallons of New Zealand pinot we stumble back to our room to find someone on staff has lit the fire for us. We change into the supplied dressing gowns. ‘It’s like walking around wrapped in a flannelette sheet,’ says Mr Smith before drawing the burgundy curtains that make the bedroom feel instantly like part of the Queen’s Court. Deliciously regal.

After a decent sleep-in and a game of ‘I can see the snow, now I can see the ocean’ we head over for breakfast. I can formally declare duck hash the breakfast of champions. We grab our sandwiches and venture to Hanmer Springs to enjoy the thermal pools. Now, everything might look close on the map, but trust me: not only do you need a hire car here, you should also double the time you think it will take to get anywhere. The roads are windy and either hug the coastline or take you over mountain ridges, which can be hairy when massive trucks speed past.

We arrive at Hanmer Springs to find it’s not as rustic and natural as we expected. There is, however, something deeply cool about choosing what temperature pool to soak in. Here’s a hint: 41 degrees is where it’s at. Then Mr Smith spots the waterslides. If anyone had said I’d be in New Zealand in the dead of winter in my bikini racing up icy steps to the top of a waterslide I would have said they were loco, but embracing your inner child is a completely energising experience. The lifeguard joins in and gives us marks out of 10 for our entries into the water.

We’re buzzing as we arrive back at our room. Mr Smith decides to light the fire himself and when the flames leap obligingly he dances around the room like Tom Hanks in Castaway, exclaiming, ‘I made fire.’ (I don’t want to burst his manly bubble but how hard can it be when you have to hand: propellent, pine cones and perfectly cut wood?)

As we walk to dinner I make a mental packing note: Louboutin heels may look fab, but they aren’t really practical on gravel pathways around a lodge. Staff members take drink orders like friends excited to welcome you to their new pad. Rather than imposing, they are so knowledgeable about the local area it feels like they’re co-conspirators on your adventure. We are soon telling them tales of conquering the waterslide and, amazingly, they don’t look at us like we are immature freaks. Not once.

Dinner again exceeds expectations. We even ask to speak to the chef, and when he brags that his rice pudding with poached tamarillo is the best in the world Mr Smith hears the sound of a gauntlet hitting the ground. Minutes later my amateur critic is raising a creamy spoonful to a smirking mouth, an eyebrow arched. A flash of disappointment at not being able to burst the chef’s bold claim is swiftly replaced by a look of ecstasy. What else to do after but flop, full of pud, into those fireside chairs but a waddle away? We stare glassy-eyed into the flames and our surroundings feel as comforting as being wrapped up in my dad’s favourite old jumper. But thankfully for boutique-hotel lovers, Hapuku Lodge is just that little bit more stylish.
 
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Price per night from $622.53