Four ensuite rooms and two private suites on ten acres of landscaped garden six kilometres south of Wanaka, the town's most considered owner-hosted five-star bed-and-breakfast.
"The version of New Zealand luxury accommodation that the country quietly does best, six ensuites, ten acres, a host couple at the door, a Central Otago wine cellar in the lounge, and a helipad on the lawn for the morning flight to Milford Sound."
Lime Tree Lodge sits on a ten-acre property on State Highway 6, six kilometres south of Wanaka village, framed by the Crown Range to the south-east, the Cardrona Valley to the south-west, and the orchard and vineyard country of the upper Clutha basin to the east. The lodge was built in the early 2000s as a purpose-designed five-star bed-and-breakfast and has been independently owner-operated since, currently by Pauline and John, who took over the property and have run it at the same quiet level of personal attention that has anchored the New Zealand lodge tradition for the past three decades.
The main lodge holds four ensuite guest rooms; two larger private suites occupy a separate wing across a covered colonnade. Every room is appointed to a consistent standard: super-king or king beds with cotton linen, French doors out to a private section of the wrap-around veranda, deep ensuite bathrooms with rain showers and Linden Leaves toiletries, writing desks, fresh flowers cut from the property's beds. The interior style is classic country-lodge rather than design-led: oak floors, white walls, country-house furniture, the wall hung with rotating works by Otago artists.
A gourmet breakfast is included and served in the dining room or out on the veranda, the menu changes daily but a five-course set of fresh fruit, yoghurt, home-made granola, cooked dishes (eggs Florentine, smoked salmon, the Lime Tree Eggs Benedict) and freshly baked bread is the rhythm. Complimentary pre-dinner aperitifs and canapés are served at 6.30 in the lounge; a dinner option is available by arrangement with twenty-four hours' notice and is the property's understated culinary set-piece, usually a four-course Central Otago, led menu paired from the property's cellar. The cellar list is among the deepest privately curated lists in the country.
Outdoor amenities run to the standard New Zealand luxury-lodge specification: a heated swimming pool, a spa pool, a croquet lawn, a petanque court, a five-hole pitch-and-putt golf course, and, the distinguishing detail, an on-site helipad that the lodge uses for guest pickups from Queenstown and for scenic departures to Mount Aspiring and Milford Sound. The hosting style is the property's greatest strength: a small enough operation that the day's plan is genuinely tailored, with restaurant reservations made for you in town, a guided fly-fishing day arranged on the upper Matukituki, and the heli-skiing or jet-boating bookings handled without becoming the focus of the stay.
A Wanaka anniversary at Lime Tree is the classic version, one of the private suites for two or three nights, the in-house four-course dinner on the milestone evening with a Central Otago pinot pairing from the cellar, breakfast on the veranda the next morning, and a half-day helicopter flight to Milford Sound from the on-site pad as the day-of-the-anniversary outing. The hosts handle the booking, the dietary brief, and the cake without being asked twice.
For a Wanaka honeymoon at the considered-rather-than-the-spectacle end of the budget, the Lime Tree Suite is the booking, bigger than any Wanaka hotel suite, with a separate sitting room and a private veranda, and the lodge's four-night honeymoon package handles a vineyard tour, a guided walk and a helicopter sub-day. The wider Central Otago wine country is twenty minutes away.
A Wanaka writer's week or a solo restorative stay works at Lime Tree because the scale is right, six rooms means you see the hosts daily, the breakfast is the social hour, and the rest of the day is yours on the veranda. The croquet lawn and the pool are unironically used. The walking is on the property's own ten acres, with the Highway 6 backroads leading on to the Hāwea river trails.
672 State Highway 6
Wanaka 9382
New Zealand
Wanaka village 6 km (6 minutes); Queenstown 60 minutes via the Crown Range; Queenstown Airport 60 minutes; on-site helipad for Milford and Mount Aspiring departures
4 ensuite guest rooms + 2 private suites
Guest Room from NZD 350/night
Lime Tree Suite from NZD 650/night
Breakfast and aperitifs included
Optional 4-course dinner NZD 165 pp
Check-in: 2:00 PM
Check-out: 11:00 AM
Owner-hosted by Pauline and John
Open year-round; closed two weeks mid-winter
Heated outdoor pool and spa pool
On-site helipad
Croquet, petanque, 5-hole pitch-and-putt
Private wine cellar and lounge
Gourmet breakfast included
Restaurant and activity bookings
From NZD 350/night. Two-night minimum at weekends in summer and ski season; book three to four months ahead for Lime Tree Suite in December, February.
Book This Hotel →The Myer family's six-suite lakeside exclusive-use lodge plus a heli-only alpine chalet at 1,750 m.
Five suites on a 55,000-hectare private conservation project between Wanaka and Queenstown.
The town's lakefront resort, hotel rooms and apartments on a peninsula at Roys Bay, two kilometres from the village.