Archive for the 'Milford Sound' Category
High Praise for Blanket Bay
Posted by Ruth Atherley on May 12, 2012 at 3:41 pm
At TRENZ, I had the chance to connect with the team from Blanket Bay and learned a bit more about their fantastic accommodation.
Blanket Bay is the South Island’s pre-eminent luxury lodge. It is the closest property, by air, to Milford Sound and all activities are on-site. Popular activities include guided fly-fishing, heli-flight-seeing to Milford Sound, jet boating, hiking or horseback riding on Wyuna High Country Station, and much more. In winter, the lodge is the perfect base for heli-skiing.
Just a 40-minute drive from Queenstown, the lodge houses three magnificent suites and five intimate lodge rooms, all with stunning lake and mountain views. Two chalets with sensational lake views offer four suites. Facilities include an intimate den, games room, gym, Jacuzzi, steam rooms, a massage suite and a heated outdoor lap pool.
Chosen from an a la carte menu, dinner is served the dining room, in the privacy of the wine cave, or on the terrace. Pacific Rim cuisine is a strong feature of the menu, complimented by an impressive choice of local and international wines.
Built in the grand style of the finest alpine lodges, Blanket Bay has received international accolades since opening in 1999. Andrew Harper’s Reader Survey placed the lodge as being in the top ten since 2002. Blanket Bay was featured as The Best Lodge in the 2007 Discovery Channel’s Five Star Insider. In 2011, Hotel Management Magazine in Australia named Blanket Bay “Best New Zealand Lodge” for the second time. They also were a finalist in this year’s Gold List compiled by the readers of Australia’s Luxury Travel magazine. Blanket Bay was voted the 3rd Best Overseas Boutique Property, Villa or Lodge and came second in the rankings as Best New Zealand Property Within Three Hours of the City.
If that weren’t enough high praise for the beautiful lodge, frequent guest, Sir Ian McKellen (Gandolf in Lord of the Rings), remarked in the guest book: “Who needs an after-life when there is Paradise on Earth? Thanks to everyone at my favourite hotel – Ian McKellen, April 2012.”
