Punakaiki luxury accommodation, West Coast, South Island, New Zealand

country:	New Zealand
location:	Just North of Punakaiki, West Coast, South Island
price:	From NZ $200 - NZ $390 per double room per night. Price includes breakfast. Lodge dinner is $80 per person including wine and cottage dinner $45 per person.
vouchers:	Gift vouchers can be used with this holiday

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introduction to Punakaiki luxury accommodation, West Coast, South Island, New Zealand

Take time out from your journey for a few days, to relax and unwind at our lodge. We are located 4-5 hours driving time from The Glaciers, Nelson, Picton and Abel Tasman. You will enjoy a tranquil spot with views of Mountains, Ocean and native forest. Guests are often astounded by the remote location yet we are only 15 minutes from "town". No landline, TV, or clock - just a wealth of peace seclusion and beauty.

Lodge guests enjoy sunsets from the heated spa, privately accessed ensuite guest accommodation, refreshments, free wireless internet, cooked breakfast. 2 friendly in-house Terriers. Dinners by arrangement, include Quality New Zealand Wines. Home produced vegetables and free-range eggs are used wherever possible. Homeopathic Massage Therapy also available onsite.

In October 2008 we were awarded Qualmark Enviro GOLD. We are the first Guest and hosted accommodation in New Zealand to hold this award.

rooms, food and facilities

Luxury lodge: The lodge rooms are all ensuite, 2 with baths and the third is wheelchair friendly. We have a house bar with wine list and dinners are available by prior reservation. (3 courses with quality NZ wine for NZ $80 per person). The lodge has a heated outdoor spa which overlooks the ocean and holistic massage is also available inhouse.

Self catering cottage: Our self catering cottage is self contained with full kitchen and laundry, large tiled bathroom and outdoor garden bath which has hot running water set in a large private landscaped garden.

Disabled access: Both the lodge and cottage are accessible by wheelchair.

Activities:

We provide mountain bikes for guest use

There are lots of great short and longer walks nearby as well as onsite guiding service (stay 2 nights & this is free)

Cave rafting and glow worm cave tours offered

Jet boating

Rafting

Horseriding

Deserted beaches and rugged coastline

Great fishing and whitebaiting

We are located close to a Seal Colonyas well as Punakaiki’s ‘pancake rocks’.

Easy day trip to Karamea and Kahurangi National Park.

how to find us

By road: From the South - We are 8KM North of Charleston. Drive North on SHW6 from Charleston. You will cross the (Little) Totara River then after crossing the Big Totara River drive slowly for a further 1.1KM, at the top of the hill turn left towards the lodge.
From Westport - 17km from Westport on SH6 you will come to our road on your right. Watch for the wooden sign on the right, at the end of a long straight section of road.
From Nelson - Take SHW6. Take care at Inangahua Junction. You need to take SHW6 not SHW69. 7km out of Westport take the left/south turn for Greymouth (SH6) and drive for 11km.Watch for the wooden sign on the right, at the end of a long straight section of road.

By air: Westport airport is 15 minutes away and we will pick up by arrangement as well as off public bus which stops at our road end.

how this holiday makes a difference

Like a many of you, we are concerned about the environment we live and travel in. Without compromising our guests' enjoyment or comfort we give regard to environmental and social as well as financial considerations. We recognize our business impacts on the wider natural and social environment in which we live and upon which we ultimately all depend.

Here are some of the things that we do at our lodge:

Environment
Energy Efficiency

Monitor energy consumption regularly to identify abnormal consumption.

Continuous evaluation and implementation of energy saving practices Room fridges and towel rails switched off and rooms are unheated when vacant. In Summer heated towel rails and heated floors are left off for guest to choose if they require them or not.

In winter use of dehumidifier after rooms are vacated means that rooms heat more easily.

No appliances are left on standby when the rooms are vacant.

All guest hot water is heated by gas on demand

Where possible light bulbs have been changed to low energy compact fluorescent bulbs.

Guests have the option to not have their towels changed daily.

Unheated towel rails are available.

Guests have the option of a cold water wash for their own laundry

All laundry is line dried. Drier is kept for emergencies only.

Motion sensors are used to control lighting in corridors.

Appliances are cleaned and serviced regularly to ensure maximum efficiency.

Building, pipes, walls and roof spaces are all insulated to modern specifications.

Wastewater Management

Where possible we use biodegradable detergents and cleaning agents that are compatible with our eco-friendly septic system.

Any potentially harmful wastes such as chemicals or oils are disposed of separately via our local council refuse station.

Our onsite septic system is regularly maintained and professionally emptied when required.

Contribution to Conservation

Our 33 acres property is planted with largely native plants and we endeavor to eliminate or reduce exotic weeds such as gorse.

Large parts of our property have been set aside to encourage natural biodiversity and to attract the native Fern Birds and Pukekos

Andre is a volunteer with the Department of Conservation and works one full day every fortnight.

Water Conservation

Water saving practices are in place – we use a front loading washing machine and only operate the dishwasher and washing machines when full. All taps are fitted with aerators. Toilets are fitted with half flush button and all sinks have plugs.

All water is collected from the roof including our greenhouse irrigation water.

Greenhouses are watered at a cool time of day to minimize evaporation.

Sustainable Design

Our buildings are made from New Zealand timber sourced from renewable forests.

We regularly use recycled materials when carrying out maintenance tasks on the property.

Minimising Waste

‘Avoid Reduce Reuse recycle compost ‘– we do the lot!

Single serve dispensers for toiletries are used in guest rooms. Single use items are being phased out.

We don’t use plastic laundry bags in guest rooms – we provide a laundry basket.

We reduce the use of office consumable where possible – reuse A4 paper when only used on one side, save electronic copied instead of paper ones.

All kitchen scraps are either fed to our chickens or composted. The compost is then added to our veggie garden.

Labeled recycling facilities are available to lodge and cottage guests. Tins, glass, plastics and cardboard are all recycled here

Wherever possible items are purchased in bulk to reduce packaging.

We collect used coffee grinds from one of the busier cafes in Westport and use it as a mulch in the vegetable garden and also add it to our compost heap. This saves one full bag of waste going to land fill every week. However, no doubt we can do better – so any suggestions you may have would be welcome!

Community
Supply Chain Management

All products and services that are used here are constantly under review to ensure that they meet with our social and environmental criteria e.g. distance traveled from source, biodegradability, efficiency rating, recycled content, recyclability.

Where possible items no longer require are donated to local good causes – e.g. 2007 we replaced guest room towels and donated the old ones to the local vet clinic. Many items go to Salvation Army.

We strive to ‘Buy New Zealand made’ and Local produce whenever possible. Our own grown vegetables have ‘food meters’ not ‘food miles’! We grow almost all of the vegetables required in the kitchen. In the tunnel houses we enjoy a 12 month growing season for many things – We have not bought a lettuce in 4 years!!

Our bacon is cured by the local butcher in Runanga

Honey is sourced from our property – we support the local bee keepers by allowing them access to our property to site their hives and in return we have a healthy supply of organic honey.

The premium coffee beans that we use are certified as organic & ‘Fair Trade’ .They are roasted in Virgin Flat road which is 2Km from here.

The famous West Coast specialty Whitebait is caught in the Totara river

Turbot which is only caught off the West Coast of New Zealand is a regular feature on our menus

Community Relations

We employ local staff

We give priority to local produce and services from medium small and micro enterprises.

We donate old or partially use items to charity.

Alison is a volunteer St Johns Ambulance Officer and during the quieter months she spends one day per week (12 hour shifts) as a volunteer in Westport.

Andre is a volunteer with the Department of Conservation and works one full day every fortnight.

Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people.

We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel.

'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left).

We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays.

We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism.

This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards.

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South Island holidays here| New Zealand holidays here