New Zealand · Our Home
Central Otago
The New Zealand we live in, not the one on the postcards.
The Region
Central Otago is the hottest, driest, coldest part of New Zealand. It is a high, semi-arid basin of thyme-covered hills, gold-rush stone villages and world-class Pinot Noir. It is also our home: Ahipara is based in Omakau, in the middle of it, which may tell you something about what twenty-five years of professional judgement concluded.
Traditional communities, very few tourists, and a clutch of wonderfully off-beat places to stay. This is the New Zealand we live in, not the one on the postcards — and we design it for guests the way we show it to friends.
01
A Moment We Design
Olivers, in gold-rush stone
Clyde’s 1860s merchant buildings now hold Olivers, with schist walls, big Central reds, and breakfast in what was the general store. The Lake Dunstan trail starts nearby if the morning calls for a bicycle; the cellar argues otherwise.
02
A Moment We Design
A castle among the orchards
Earnscleugh Castle is exactly what it sounds like and entirely improbable — a brick country castle out among Alexandra’s orchards and vines, restored into one of the South Island’s more wonderfully off-beat stays. Very Central: grand, dry-witted, unbothered.
03
A Moment We Design
Pinot with its people
Central’s Pinot Noir is grown at the edge of the possible (the world’s southernmost serious wine region), and the people who make it are our neighbours in the literal sense. Tastings here come with first names, barrel thieves and strong opinions.
When To Come
The season is part of the design
Autumn is Central’s legend. The poplars and willows turn the valleys to amber, the air stills, and harvest fills the cellars. April here is worth rearranging a year for.
Summer bakes the thyme, winter silvers everything with hoar frost, and both are beautiful. We live here; there is no month we would warn you off.
A Journey That Lingers Here
South Island In Depth
Twenty-five days through the south with two nights at Olivers in Clyde at its centre: gold-rush stone, big reds, and the Lake Dunstan trail by bike the next morning.
Explore South Island In DepthDesign your journey
Tell us what pulled at you here. We'll design the journey around it, with the right people waiting when the helicopter lands.
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