Lake Hāwea Station

Character and identity

An hour and a half from Queenstown, this 16,000-acre working farm in New Zealand's high country folds rugged Kiwi ranch life into the country's luxury-lodge sensibility. Six rooms are split between a pair of restored turn-of-the-century shepherds' cabins and the Lake House, a glass-walled villa with terraces opening onto Lake Hāwea and the Southern Alps beyond. Owners Justine and Geoff Ross have replanted 100,000 native trees, designated regenerative paddocks, and run the place on renewable energy, aiming for tenfold carbon positivity within a decade. Expect merino musters, free-roaming kune kune pigs, and a swimming pond.

Who's it for

Bottom line

What sets this place apart is the combination of a credible regenerative-farming mission with a setting and design language that genuinely deliver on the high-country fantasy. Book the Lake House if the budget allows, for the glass-walled sunrise over a glassy lake and the Alps; the shepherds' cabins are the gentler-priced way in. Shoulder seasons reward with snow on the peaks and fewer visitors.