New Zealand pt 4 — Little Paradise Lodge

Part 3: https://medium.com/@timothyteoh/new-zealand-pt-2-arriving-in-nz-8b51429a3061

When Karen and I started looking for our accommodation in NZ we knew that it was quite important as we would be spending 3 days there and it would be the main “base” for our activities.

She found a place called “Little Paradise Lodge” in Tripadvisor that had rave reviews but didn’t seem like the typical hostel or apartment lodgings.

First off, this was the map there as shown on their site. It basically said “20 minutes from Queenstown to Glenorchy”. That was it.

For reference, this was the year where “Cabin in the Woods” came out so it seemed a bit creepy to book rooms in a place that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere.

We hopped on Google Streetview and poked around the whole stretch of road until we finally found the place. Come to think of it there wasn’t really much you could have added to the original map to make it more accurate! It was just there on the road like it showed.

It looked like a nice place tho! So we decided to do it.

There are only four rooms in Little Paradise Lodge so we booked well in advance just in case. Every room has a different name. We booked the Singing Frog Room, the largest, for NZD160 a night.

One of the reasons we took the shorter route from Christchurch to Queenstown was that we didn’t want to arrive too late.

The owners had gotten the fireplace ready for us though which was good because is was freezing outside.

We stepped in and let out a collective “whoaaaa”.

Nearly everything in the cabin had been built from scratch by its owner Thomas.

There was a fireplace stocked with wood that Thomas would bring in every day. Very rustic!

The table and sofas in the living area were handcrafted as well — down to the coonskins and mural on the wall! And yup those crawler plants aren’t made of plastic.

The double bed (also handcrafted) was next to a giant window that overlooked Lake Wakatipu.

Why the giant window? Well there are absolutely no other buildings for miles around so there is zero light pollution. Which means that you can simply lie down on the bed and look at the stars in the night sky before falling asleep. Absolutely surreal.

Even the toilet seat was handcrafted! The owners have a quirky sense of humour which showed in the carved messages they would leave on various objects.

There was an actual aquarium where the tank would normally be. Don’t worry the fishies don’t actually get flushed down the drain! Flushing was done by pulling the stone on top.

Hanging on a wall was the wooden replica of a huge fish Thomas had once caught.

A custom bookshelf to house his encyclopedias.

The shower room, made mainly from polished pebbles.

The shared living area had a giant tree-trunk slice mounted on the wall

Another painstakingly made mural of a hunting scene lines the wall to the shower.

A view of the lodge from the living area to the kitchen. We didn’t manage to spend that much time here to our regret!

Thomas’ wife Christine would make sure to refill the bird feeder outside every day.

This is the view of the Lodge from the gardens outside.

It wasn’t just the Lodge itself that was amazing though. The tea gardens surrounding it where chock-full of surprises and little details.

We were there in autumn when most of the trees and plants had shed their leaves and flowers — we saw pictures of the garden in summer and they were gorgeous.

Quirky signs and sculptures dotted the gardens. The owners charge NZD16 to take a tour and have tea if you are not staying a night here.

A beautiful fountain in the middle of the garden.

Did I mention there is absolutely no cell coverage here? You are cutoff from the rest of the world other than your companions and the sound of frogs and flowing water.

A pond with a cheeky sign that you had to read from the water.

Outside our room. It was near the back of the lodge as well so we would sometimes bump into Thomas when we were on the way out in the mornings. He would be on the way in with his hunting rifle

The owners were obsessed with the cleanliness there as well! Karen once came out after a shower and went back to pick up something, but Thomas was already scrubbing down the walls.

Staying here was definitely the highlight of our trip. If you’re looking for an out-of-the-way sanctuary in NZ or on a honeymoon you should definitely come to this “cabin in the woods” — there actually was a honeymooning couple staying here at the same time as us.

Coming back into the trip timeline, our first dinner here was KFC and soup. Karen and Mimi went all the way into Queenstown for this while I took a nap at the lodge because I was tired out from the trip.

We were pretty happy with the trip so far, and were even more excited because we would be going skydiving the next day.