ON THE BANKS of Lake Wakatipu is a hotel with stories to tell, including the one about Albert Eichardt, who won a gold nugget in an 1866 lottery, which he used to buy this former wool shed. And the one about the Prussian immigrant who spent two decades converting this category two Historic Places building into a five-star hotel, including turning the old stables into a wing to house two suites and The Grille Restaurant.
Queenstown’s lifeblood runs along its lakefront, and many of the hotel’s rooms provide a front-row seat to the action. Outside the front door are shops, restaurants and jet-boat rides.
They clearly had aesthetics in mind when they designed the hotel: the 13 suites are so luxurious you’ll feel your shoulders drop and your jaw unclench as soon as you cross the threshold. Each room has a gas fire and cosy throws for those frosty Queenstown days, and there are generous kitchens, dressing rooms and bathrooms where amenities are from Kiwi brand sans [ceuticals].
No stay is complete without a bowl of steaming seafood chowder (so famous it’s actually referred to as Eichardt’s Legendary Seafood Chowder on the menu). Or order the potato gnocchi with black garlic, which is a bowl of joy.
