ŌKERE Ridge - Stone, native timber and tree ferns overlooking Lake Rotoiti

Ōkere Ridge is a stack-schist stone-and-native-timber lodge overlooking Lake Rotoiti at Ōkere Falls. Gables and windows frame a dark, warm interior with antique timber, cowhide, leather and statement art. A double-height living room with mezzanine, lower lounge glasshouse sunroom overlooking the panoramic view. Outside are a smokehouse/bar, pellet smoker, pizza oven, barbecue, pavilion, spa and fire pit. Four bedrooms, two bathrooms and vintage caravan Roxanne make it an ideal weekend base.

LIVING SPACES

The living room goes up two storeys to a vaulted ceiling with a mezzanine gallery above it, a stacked stone fireplace and a gas fire for the evenings that turn.

One step down is the glasshouse, a steel-framed conservatory running the length of the front: slate floor, glazed roof, old leather chairs, and Lake Rotoiti straight ahead. You go from the darkest room in the house to the lightest in one pace.

The kitchen is set up to cook a real meal for a group rather than reheat one, with a servery window through to the covered outdoor area. The dining table sits alongside under its own chandelier and extends to seat eight.

The stone nook is a round wicker daybed against the schist, looking straight out into the bush. The quietest seat indoors.

SLEEPING
Eight guests across four bedrooms.

Loft: queen, with a balcony
Black room (Master) : queen, with a balcony
Grey room: queen, with a balcony
Charcoal room: two single beds

BATHROOMS

Two inside, plus a separate shower room and toilet on the lower level. That pair matters more than it sounds: it is where you rinse off after the lake, and it is the closest loo when everyone is out at the fire pit.

OUTSIDE

A covered pavilion with a bar-height table, louvre windows framing the bush and string lights overhead. Dry in the rain, shaded in the sun, and the place everyone ends up.

A dining deck with a round table with a big umbrella, with the option to open to the sky.

A covered smokehouse kitchen and bar: pellet smoker, gas cooktop, barbecue, prep bench and sink. There is more cooking out here than most houses manage inside.

A handmade brick pizza oven with its own chimney, under cover.

An outdoor spa, round and timber-clad, in a hedged corner of the garden along a boardwalk. Best at dusk.

An intimate fire pit on the lawn with two chairs pulled up to it.

Roxanne, a 1960s caravan done up with a day bed and a shelf of odd glassware. She is a day space, not a bedroom, and she is not counted in the eight. Children claim her within about four minutes of arriving. Firewood available at time of booking for small fee.

And a dozen quiet corners in the bush to sit in and do nothing, which is what most people end up doing first.