Blanket Bay... another NZ stunning lodge

amaroo · Mar 29, 2019

love_the_life said:
Room looks wonderful though is it a king size bed - a bit hard to tell.

The room is OTT large and makes the super king size bed look like a double.... the bed was huge and one of the most comfortable I've slept on.

amaroo · Mar 29, 2019

As we booked through a Virtuoso agent, lunch was included

Lovely lunch in a great setting. The food offer is 1st class. Worth coming here just the food.

Not a local, but what a beauty!

Daver6 · Mar 29, 2019

I think the definition of a lodge is it must have a fireplace with a stuff animal above it and an antler light fitting

amaroo · Mar 29, 2019

After lunch we went for a walk around the property...

amaroo · Mar 30, 2019

amaroo · Mar 30, 2019

Pre-dinner drinks, canapés, and dinner is included in the rate.

Excellent meal!

amaroo · Mar 30, 2019

Breakfast is also included...

craven morehead · Mar 30, 2019

amaroo said:
The main lodge...

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Truly magnificent !!

craven morehead · Mar 30, 2019

amaroo said:
As we booked through a Virtuoso agent, lunch was included

Lovely lunch in a great setting. The food offer is 1st class. Worth coming here just the food.

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Not a local, but what a beauty!

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I think one could almost relax in that setting

VPS · Mar 30, 2019

The food and scenery look magnificent

Antoallison · Mar 30, 2019

amaroo said:
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@amaroo the scenery and Lodge are both stunning, but your photographic work take ‘holiday snaps’ to a whole other level !

love_the_life · Mar 30, 2019

Interested to hear if the lodge provides 'experiences' like many others or really concentrates being an upmarket hotel with excellent F&B and some nice walks.

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tgh · Mar 30, 2019

Based on the photography, BB lodge kills Explora Patagonia or Atacama , although Explora is all inclusive.

amaroo · Mar 31, 2019

love_the_life said:
Interested to hear if the lodge provides 'experiences' like many others or really concentrates being an upmarket hotel with excellent F&B and some nice walks.

Plenty on offer - something for everyone

amaroo · Mar 31, 2019

love_the_life · Mar 31, 2019

Certainly a wide variety of experiences you can book, though I see that they are almost all run by outside companies and extra charge. Some lodges offer complementary (well included in the price) activities. From the list, Blanket Bay seems to outsource these to local businesses.

On a different note, how would you rank Blanket Bay to the other lodges in NZ you've stayed at in the past?

amaroo · Mar 31, 2019

We had planned to do a heli tour to Milford Sound, but the weather at Milford wasn’t the best... even though we had nice skies at the Bay. Oh well, it’s a good reason to return to Blanket Bay

For a filler we decided to drive to the start / end of the Routeburn and have a look.

A little beauty

Make that a feisty little beauty...

amaroo · Apr 1, 2019

love_the_life said:
Certainly a wide variety of experiences you can book, though I see that they are almost all run by outside companies and extra charge. Some lodges offer complementary (well included in the price) activities. From the list, Blanket Bay seems to outsource these to local businesses.

On a different note, how would you rank Blanket Bay to the other lodges in NZ you've stayed at in the past?

All the lodges we've stayed pretty much have the same activities provided by a 3rd party. They had kayaks, bikes, etc that were available and free for use.

Blanket Bay would sit at the top of the list for location, scenery, facilities, and food. It's a very nice property.

amaroo · Apr 1, 2019

With the Routeburn Track done and the weather over Milford Sound still rotten we headed to Queenstown, on the way we dropped into the lodge for tea and biscuits.

This is our first visit to Queenstown for nearly 20 years. Having never been on the Gondola we decided to go up and have a few runs on the luge track.