21-04-2025
NZ luxury travel: Canterbury's Flockhill Lodge opens new villas, Sugarloaf restaurant after wildfire threat
Honouring its place in the local community, Flock Hill Station, the lodge, and neighbours in the valley are fundraising to help regenerate the native species lost in the fires.
Still, the need for natural regeneration did not hamper the lodge's first summer season welcoming guests from around the world to experience its new offerings.
We arrive early in March on a baking hot, cloudless Canterbury day and are instantly surrounded by effortless elegance and luxury.
Luggage is swiftly whisked away, while we step through the main building's grand doors, our jaws involuntarily dropping at the view.
Framed by floor-to-ceiling glass at every turn, our gaze is drawn outwards to the peaks of Purple Hill, Mt St Bernard and Sugarloaf – the latter giving its name to Flockhill's new restaurant.
You'd forgive staff for never wanting to see another fire ever again after the near miss before launch, but instead it's at the heart of Sugarloaf's fine dining morning to night menu.
Executive chef Taylor Cullen – son of general manager Andrew Cullen – has created many dishes to be cooked over open flame on the grill or in the hearth.
His custom-built open kitchen resembles one you'd find in a Victorian homestead, albeit accompanied by the most modern of accessories. It sits pride of place in one corner of the restaurant, so guests can watch Cullen and his team in action, preparing the delectable meals included in the stay.
Cullen's ethos is all about using the very best produce, with up to 70% grown in the extensive garden and greenhouses or foraged from the property. Everything else is sourced from sustainable, local suppliers.
On-site pickling, fermenting, preserving and dry-ageing means ingredients have longevity, important for the harsh alpine conditions – exceptionally cold winters and long, dry summers.
Cullen's food is accompanied by an extensive and exceptional wine offering, with a long list of New Zealand wines, as well as the very best imported brands.
A highlight dining experience is the Chef's Table, where we sit at the kitchen counter and are served dish after dish of intricately assembled plates of food, all looking good enough to make it to your Instagram grid.
Cullen and his team talk us through each dish, its ingredients, how they've been cooked, and answer any questions we have, making it a unique interactive dining experience.
Sugarloaf and the villas are a new addition to Flockhill, but the property has been open to guests since November 2022. Former Herald travel journalist Thomas Bywater was one of the first guests to stay at the homestead, the ultra-luxurious four-bedroom, 780sq m house perched on a hill looking out to Sugarloaf mountain.
He called it 'the world's most glamorous sheep station'.
The $15,000 per night price tag made a stay at Flockhill unattainable for many New Zealanders.
The villas open things up to another tier of visitors, however, they're still in the high-end, luxury, very special occasion category. Two nights for two people in a junior suite, including accommodation, food and two activities per day is priced from $3250.
As you'd expect from such a high-end experience, every detail is designed to impress.
The seven villas, which can be booked as 14 private suites, stand alone from each other, winding away from the main lodge building.
This is no basic apartment, of course – luxury is intrinsic to every detail, from the cloud-like super king beds and expensive linen to the Riedel glassware and gleaming stainless steel cutlery.
A heavy duty Breville barista-style Nespresso machine takes care of coffee needs while the wine fridge is stocked with Pegasus Bay and Peregrine wines alongside international brands like Whispering Angel and Krug. (A small note for those who like to enjoy a few tipples on their holidays, villa guests can enjoy one complimentary bottle of Pegasus Bay wine, and there are daily classes in the bar, like brandy or whisky tasting, cocktail making etc, but all other drinks come at an additional price and are added to the bill).
The villas have soaring ceilings, meeting in a peak, the geometry reflecting Sugarloaf Mountain, which can be viewed from the comfort of your bed, your spacious lounge, or on your outdoor decks.
When temperatures drop, you can warm up in front of one of your three gas fireplaces in the bedroom, lounge or deck.
Huge windows in the kitchen and bathroom face the hills behind the homestead, so no matter where you're looking out from, you are surrounded by views of natural beauty. The peace and quiet envelop you like the comfort of a weighted blanket.
The new planting around the property is still in its infancy but already looks beautiful – colourful flowers in the gardens outside each villa, native tree saplings bedding in, and manicured lawns which never get a chance to grow wild thanks to a fleet of Husqvana robo-mowers working silently day and night.
Established beech trees provide the perfect home for bellbirds – their song in the morning is accompanied by the buzz of bumblebees, and the distant barks of the working dogs ready for their day on the farm.
Flockhill started its life in 1857 as a high country station, a role it still plays today. The property spans 14,500ha, with 10,500 head of Merino-Romney sheep and 400 cattle.
One must-do on a stay is a farm tour with one of the station's shepherds.
We join an American couple from Texas who are wowed watching the working dogs round up huge mobs of sheep against a backdrop of Lake Pearson and Sugarloaf mountain, under the command of young shepherd Thurza.
Even for those who live in New Zealand and have regular access to Country Calendar, the tour is a real highlight.
Thurza is one of those star guides you occasionally meet on holidays and tours. With a confidence and knowledge far beyond her 20-something years, she has a way of making what must be the most pedestrian of subjects to her – sheep-shearing, tail-docking, herding – effortlessly memorable.
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What's even more impressive is that she doesn't come from a farming or rural background. She grew up in central Christchurch but says she 'always knew the city wasn't for me'.
She's just one of many talented young staff at Flockhill. Many only joined the lodge late last year before the December opening of its expanded facilities.
Ruben, 18, grew up nearby with parents who run a hunting and fishing guided tour company. He takes us on another fantastic adventure... floating on an inflatable donut down the property's aptly named Winding River.
The gentle stream snakes and bends like a waterpark's lazy river and we spend a fun and relaxing hour drifting along with the current. Paddles are provided, but are only really required to push off from the banks or each other's inflatables when we don't quite catch the right river flow.
At the end, we make the most of the hot late afternoon sun and dive into the icy alpine stream, the most refreshing dip of my entire summer.
We head out one morning with guide Jamie for an invigorating hike to the Flockhill boulders in the Dry Valley. The formations are similar to those found at nearby Castle Hill but are on Flockhill's private property, rather than public DoC land. We are the only ones hiking this baffling landscape dotted with giant limestone boulder formations that have dominated the hillsides for tens of millions of years.
The area was used as a filming location for The Chronicles of Narnia movies, and Jamie takes us on a two-hour return hike to reach Aslan's Rock – an impressive overhang on the edge of the ridge which could make even the most hardy of height-lovers have a quiver of vertigo. We pose long enough for pictures before taking our wobbly legs away from the edge to hike back to the car, then home to the lodge for lunch.
As well as hiking, farm tours, and river drifting, there are plenty of other activities on offer, from the sedate (petanque, croquet, fly fishing), to the energetic (horse riding, caving, hiking, or e-biking to two impressive waterfalls on the station).
A little tipsy one afternoon after a brandy-tasting experience with the lodge's Parisian sommelier Theo, we migrate to the Miner's Cottage – a restored 1850s villa that once housed families when gold miners were based on the land. Now, it's been brought up to the lodge and converted into a games and music room.
Inside, we find a mint-condition pool table, shuffleboard set-up, chess board, comfortable leather sofas and club chairs, record player and speakers, complete with vinyl albums ranging from David Bowie and Elton John to Adele and Amy Winehouse. We listen to music and play games, and it's the perfect way to while away a couple of hours before dinner.
After dinner, we sit around the outdoor fire pit before a deep, dreamless sleep in our luxury villa, under a blanket of stars. The robo-mowers are still silently keeping the grass in check so we can wake tomorrow to another perfect Flockhill morning.
