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Cubicle Dreamin' / New Zealand Hotels / Hotel Spas / Photo Gallery / → All Tags

What Happens When Our Cubicle Dreams Come True: The Farm at Cape Kidnappers

Where: 448 Clifton Road, Te Awanga, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand

All this week, HotelChatter contributor Eric Rosen takes us on a tour of New Zealand’s hotel scene.

About a year or so ago, in a Cubicle Dreamin’ fantasy piece, we told you about one of our all-time dream hotels, The Farm at Cape Kidnappers in the famous wine-making region of Hawkes Bay on New Zealand’s North Island.

Well, in one of those amazing twists of fate, we actually got to visit the gourmet golf resort over the holidays this year, and here are a couple of our photos and impressions of the resort, which we can only describe as world-class.

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Hotel Video Tours / Photo Gallery / New Zealand Hotels / Wellington Hotels / → All Tags

Inside Wellington's Museum Hotel

Where: 90 Cable Street, Te Aro, Wellington, New Zealand, 6011

All this week, HotelChatter contributor Eric Rosen takes us on a tour of New Zealand’s hotel scene.

Today on our New Zealand hotel scene roundup, we take you to the nation’s capital, Wellington, or “Windy Welly” as the locals call it thanks to its typically blustery weather, to show you around our room at the city’s Museum Hotel.

Wellington is about one tenth the size of Auckland, but we were still white-knuckling it as we drove along the busy one-way streets all the way to the harbor-front where we found the austere, black façade of the hotel across from one of the country’s most visited museums, Te Papa. Aha, so that’s where the hotel’s name comes from!

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Auckland Hotels / New Zealand Hotels / Westin Hotels / → All Tags

Why We Needed To Use the Restroom at Westin Auckland Lighter Quay

Where: 21 Viaduct Harbour Ave., Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand, 1010

All this week, HotelChatter contributor Eric Rosen takes us on a tour of New Zealand’s hotel scene.

So far in our mini hotel tour of Auckland we’ve taken you to the Langham, where we stayed, and over to the Hilton, where we popped in for an impromptu tour one day. Now we’re going to take you to the newest of the city’s upscale chain hotels, the Westin Auckland Lighter Quay.

We had to settle for another quick guerrilla tour of this harborfront property because we weren’t actually staying there, and couldn’t take any photos inside. But we did manage to get a good look around and thought it was worth mentioning here anyway. And if you really need the visual aids, you can check out our Flickr shots of the hotel here.

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Photo Gallery / Auckland Hotels / New Zealand Hotels / Hilton Hotels / Hotel Pools / Death Defying Rooftop Hotel Pools / → All Tags

Inside The Hilton Auckland, Where The Pool Hangs Off The Roof

Where: Princes Wharf 147 Quay St., Auckland, North Island, New Zealand, 1040

All this week, HotelChatter contributor Eric Rosen takes us on a tour of New Zealand’s hotel scene.

Though we stayed at the Langham during our three days in Auckland, we took the opportunity to visit a couple of the city’s other premier hotels including the Hilton.

The first thing that struck us as we dropped off a couple friends was the architecture. The hotel is on a renovated wharf, and was designed to look like a cruise ship, though it had more of an oil tanker aesthetic if you asked us. The one cool feature was the pool suspended four stories above the driveway, and you know how we like our dramatic hotel pools.

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Hotel Video Tours / Photo Gallery / HotelChatter Reviews / Langham Hotels / New Zealand Hotels / Auckland Hotels / → All Tags

Inside The Langham Auckland

Where: 83 Symonds St., Auckland, North Island, New Zealand, 1140

All this week, HotelChatter contributor Eric Rosen takes us on a tour of New Zealand’s hotel scene.

Though it’s the biggest city in New Zealand, Auckland is still a small place, with just about 1.4 million souls, so the hotel scene isn’t quite as big as we’re used to.

Still, we found a few options to talk about based on our recent trip down to city of sails, including the Langham Auckland, where we stayed for three nights, and which we’d venture to say is the city’s most established luxury hotel based on what we saw while we were down there. Check out the photo gallery and room video we made to find out why.

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Hyatt Hotels / Hotel Hell / Reader Reviews / Auckland Hotels / Hotel Woes / → All Tags

Yet Another Tale of Hotel Inconsistency

Where: Cnr Princes St & Waterloo Quadrant, Auckland, New Zealand

All hotels are not created equal, we do know this much to be true, not even ones that are part of the same brand, carry the same amenities and have the same name. Just because you love Hotel XYZ in New York doesn't mean that Hotel XYZ in San Fran or Miami is just as good.

Sadly, this happens far too often and today one reader is apparently fed up with it all. He writes:

I'm a platinum member with Hyatt and now I having the unfortunate misfortune of staying at the Auckland Hyatt "Regency" Hotel. I certainly use the term "Regency" tongue in check, which is bleeding.

From the moment I have had my quarters, I have been disturbed with slamming doors (it's 0100 in the morning, which is why I'm now sharing my misfortune) and talking in hallway which sounds as if the conversation is occurring in my presence. When a door is being knocked on across the hall from me, the sound carries as if MY door is the one in which someone is knocking on.

Using the bathroom has the grand experience of hearing the downward flushes from the floors above.

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Cubicle Dreamin' / New Zealand Hotels / Luxury Hotels / → All Tags

Wine, Nature and Golf at the End of the World

Where: 448 Clifton Road, Te Awanga, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand

Cubicle Dreamin' is a feature in which we ask the hotel mavens to take some time out of their busy work day, surf the Internet, and tell us what hotel they wish they could beam themselves to right that very second--all on the slave driving companies dime, of course. Oh, like these people aren't surfing aimlessly anyway--at least now their purposeless clicking will be cobbled together into useful hotel stories--we hope. Have a destination hotel you are just dying to leave your cube for? Send the story our way.

In this episode, Hotel Maven Eric Rosen travels to the end of the earth for a luxury stay. Enjoy.

Summer has not even ended yet, but the crush of autumn obligations and work has already started to feel suffocating. As longer hours, shorter days and colder temperatures threaten, I have been casting my eye around for a way to get away from it all—to the very ends of the earth if necessary—and to find a way to extend summer indefinitely. That is how I settled upon my far-flung destination of The Farm at Cape Kidnappers in the Hawkes Bay region of New Zealand’s North Island.

With airfares dropping on Qantas and Air New Zealand thanks to new competition from Virgin Australia, it seems like a great time to take advantage of the chance to fly halfway round the world to Auckland…and then take another hour-long flight (or six-hour drive!). Finally, we’re starting to get somewhere.

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Cubicle Dreamin / New Zealand Hotels / → All Tags

Queenstown's Matakauri Lodge Might Get Even Better

Where: Glenorchy Road, Queenstown, New Zealand

Cubicle Dreamin' is a feature in which we ask the hotel mavens to take some time out of their busy work day, surf the Internet, and tell us what hotel they wish they could beam themselves to right that very second--all on the slave driving company's dime, of course. Oh, like these people aren't surfing aimlessly anyway; at least now their purposeless clicking will be cobbled together into useful hotel stories--we hope. Have a destination hotel you are just dying to leave your cube for? Send the story our way.

Despite living in Australia for a whole lot of my life, I've never actually been to New Zealand. (It's actually pretty far away when you live on the west coast of Oz – that's my excuse and I’m sticking to it.) Of course I definitely want to check out this beautiful country and a resort that's just changed hands seems like a nice spot to stay.

Near the tourist hotspot of Queenstown on the South Island, the Matakauri Lodge has just been bought by billionaire Julian Robertson. He already owns The Farm at Cape Kidnappers and Kauri Cliffs but he's moving south and extending his family of luxury Kiwi resorts.

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Hotel Spas / Auckland Hotel Reviews / Langham Hotels / → All Tags

Langham Auckland's Got a Swanky New Spa

Where: 83 Symonds Street, Auckland, New Zealand

Getting all Asian on us in New Zealand, the Langham Hotel Auckland has just opened a Chuan Spa with a big emphasis on traditional Chinese medicine ideas. The spa takes up the entire second floor of the hotel and offers thirty different spa treatments.

The facilities include snail showers (aka spiral showers, but snail sounds more interesting), herbal steam rooms and an "ice experience." There's also a heated infinity pool outside.

To celebrate the opening, the Langham Auckland is putting on a Chuan Journey package: one night in a special Chuan Haven suite for two, an hour and a half of spa therapy for each of you, a 15% discount on any further spa stuff, free parking and late checkout, starting from NZ$639 ($500). The catch (well, sorta catch): there are only two of these Haven suites in the whole hotel, and you can only book them when you're combining them with spa treatment.

Killer View / New Zealand Hotels / → All Tags

'Remarkable' Eye Candy in New Zealand

Where: 109 Beach Street, Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand

We are suckers for a room with a killer view.  We find that we are even more likely to forgive some minor hotel inconveniences if we can stare out the window at something pretty--yeah we are that shallow. Let's help out our fellow hotel mavens by uploading rooms with killer views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. We will feature our favorites in this space from time to time. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number of the hot view.

Um, we have been ready to go to New Zealand since, um, forever ago — but if we needed further convincing, this photo would have done it for us.

This shot belongs to Flickr user Chewy Chua, who snapped this from a room at BreakFree The Waterfront in Queenstown, New Zealand.

A caption:

We stayed in a place called Breakfree, Waterfront. A well equipped and appointed condo/apartment type hotel. Majestic view of the lake and the Remarkables.

Um, yes. Remarkable indeed. The hotel is located "100 metres from the main street and 30 metres to the lake" — that's Lake Wakatipu — and according to the website, every window and Juliet balcony has a killer view like this.

All rooms here have "kitchen facilities," laundry, an "intercom" and a "security system" and, for a one-bedroom studio, rooms start at a totally decent 99 NZD — about 56 US dollars. Check the place out here.

[Photo: ChewyChua]

New Zealand Hotels / Hotel Websites / Hotel Technology / → All Tags

Hotel So Sooo Loves Its Guests' Praise

Where: 165 Cashel Street , Christchurch, New Zealand, 8011

In today's technological world, even Web nerds like us are forced to admit that there's something irreplaceable about the handwritten note. A positive online hotel review lacks the familiarity and comraderie built between satisfied hotel guests and the hoteliers who served them be found in the hotel guest book.

New Zealand's new Hotel So has found a solution to this. In conjunction with its comprehensive site, the hotel launched weloveso.com, a page dedicated to scanned images of the hotel's guest book. No word on whether they white-out any negative reviews. But the Christchurch-based hotel offers ultra modern facilities, free WiFi, and flat screen TVs starting at $69. Sounds like there's not much to complain about.

Flight Attendants / Crowne Plaza Hotels / Hotel Hell / New Zealand Hotels / → All Tags

Drunken Qantas Flight Attendants Cause Trouble at a Crowne Plaza in New Zealand

Where: Beach Street, Queenstown, New Zealand, 9300

Uh-oh sounds like someone had too much fun raiding the mini-bar at the Crowne Plaza in Queenstown, New Zealand.

According to reports, two Qantas flight attendants got wasted in their crash pad hotel room and set off the fire alarm at the hotel:

Many of about 200 guests at the Crowne Plaza hotel were dragged from their beds and sent into the street and two fire engines rushed to the hotel after a fire-alarm access point was smashed on July 31.

The false alarm cost the flight attendant $1500 to cover damages and the cost of the call-out.

But the next day when the hotel confronted the Qantas staffer they believed pulled the alarm, she apparently had no idea what she had done.

It was a fairly big stuff-up by the guest and when she was asked why she did it, she said she had no idea and she was upset and disappointed with herself. She left next day.

Needless to say the flight attendants have been suspended.