20/20 VISION
20/20 Vision - Luxury Travel Magazine
 | |||||
20/20 Vision | |||||
| By Tom Walker, Issue 17 – Summer 2004 | |||||
| (Peppers Retreats And Resorts, 20th anniversary, NZ) | |||||
| PEPPERS RETREATS AND RESORTS CELEBRATES ITS 20TH ANNIVERSARY THIS YEAR AND, FITTINGLY, THE OPENING OF ITS 20TH LUXURY PROPERTY. Call me old-fashioned but is there any better way to spend a weekend than by checking into a rambling country house, complete with open fires, comfy sofas, king-size beds, wisteria-clad verandahs, sun-dappled gardens and views to rolling vines? Check in on Friday night, rise late on Saturday morning for a lazy breakfast, followed by a bracing walk, round of golf, spot of wine-tasting, and romantic candlelit dinner. After another leisurely lie-in on Sunday morning, there’s time for a game of tennis, a browse through your favourite magazine (Luxury Travel, naturally), and a picnic lunch before hitting the road for the journey home. Two decades after opening its doors to guests, Peppers Guest House at Pokolbin, in the heart of NSW’s Hunter Valley wine country, still cuts the mustard when it comes to a thoroughly relaxed and enjoyable weekend. Like a seed growing into a sapling, this iconic guest house – the brainchild of Suzy and Michael O’Connor – soon branched out into a family tree of sister properties, which not only captured the essence of their coastal and country locations but also the hearts of guests who stayed there: Peppers Anchorage Port Stephens, Peppers Manor House Southern Highlands, Peppers Fairmont Blue Mountains and Peppers Convent Hunter Valley, followed rapidly by a move interstate to Delgany on Victoria’s lovely Mornington Peninsula, Hidden Vale in Queensland’s Lockyer Valley, and up to Port Douglas – all enjoying that heady combination of luxury accommodation, good food and fine wines, championship golf courses, and breathtaking scenery. But that’s just the start of the story. As Peppers Retreats and Resorts celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, a swag of new properties has been announced, including the opening of the group’s 20th – and first international – address in New Zealand. An easy 45-minute drive south of Auckland, the 48-room Peppers Hotel Du Vin is an exclusive country retreat in a stunning vineyard setting. Established in 1987, the guest house offers the best in Kiwi hospitality with a reputation for gourmet food matched with leading local wines, including its own Firstland label which will also be on offer at Peppers properties throughout Australia under the new management deal. Guest accommodation is in comfortable, private chalets scattered around the vineyard with a host of leisure activities on offer. “This alliance is a great fit for both of us as Peppers’ origins lie in Australian wine country,” says Peppers managing director Rolf Krecklenberg, who added that the new venture will act as a foundation hotel for more New Zealand properties. Peppers will bring the NZ ‘super lodge’ concept to Australia with the launch of Peppers Spicers Peak Lodge at Scenic Rim in Queensland, a new premium boutique retreat about 90 minutes‚ drive south-west of Brisbane. The lodge is owned by Flight Centre CEO Scroo Turner and will be managed and marketed by Peppers from early this year. It’s a worthy sister property to Peppers Hidden Vale Lockyer Valley, which is also owned by Turner and just an hour’s drive south-west of Brisbane. While Hidden Vale is a working cattle station with a grand and luxurious homestead, Peppers Spicers Peak Lodge is located in Main Range National Park, a 10-suite NZ or African-style mountain lodge (complete with tennis courts) which is ideal for top-level executive escapes, people who want to get away from it all without trading in their creature comforts. Spicers guests will be able to go bushwalking, mountain-biking or four-wheel driving or just relax at the retreat, with a major focus on food and wine experiences featuring local produce, degustation menus and an extensive wine list. As with many of NZ’s luxury lodges, packages will be all-inclusive of accommodation, meals and wine, with the only worry being which style of massage to choose. Wine is the key element in another addition to the collection, Peppers Caves House Margaret River in Western Australia, a natural extension to the Peppers brand. The guest house is situated in what’s known as the ‘Cape to Cape’ region of South-West WA – one of Australia’s most diverse and beautiful holiday destinations – with a breathtaking coastline, warm Mediterranean climate and award-winning food and wine. Caves House will continue to operate in its present form until mid-2004, during which time it will be extensively upgraded and refurbished, ready for a re-launch later in the year. The property will offer 64 guest rooms and suites, and a new restaurant and bar, all decorated to reflect the warmth and character of the original 1930s Art Deco-style building and regional location. “Ever since we started 20 years ago, the core Peppers philosophy has been based on guests feeling genuinely at home through warm and friendly hospitality as opposed to slick city efficiency,” says Krecklenberg. The company’s rapid growth has seen the launch of eight new properties in the past three years, and there’s talk of three more to open in 2005 – two in Queensland and another, Peppers Salt Resort, opening in Kingscliff on NSW’s North Coast. Apart from food and wine, golf and spas are a major focus for the brand with a range of new properties set around championship courses or offering the kind of new millennium pampering and body-and-soul soothing facilities that the tired and stressed-out executive traveller is demanding. While golf has been a byword at the likes of Fairmont, Manor House Southern Highlands and Delgany for some years, it’s now par for the course at Peppers Links Resort Port Douglas with a cluster of luxury villas set around the 18-hole championship Links Golf Club, and the new Peppers at Moonah Links, a $40 million development on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula which opened late last year. If you’re after rainforest and reef, Peppers Bloomfield Lodge is tucked within the lush World Heritage-listed Daintree Rainforest, and to the south in the Whitsunday Islands is Peppers Palm Bay on Long Island – not forgetting Peppers Casuarina Lodge Byron Bay, set on arguably Australia’s most beautiful coastal fringe. Then again, you might be one of those old-fashioned souls like me who takes delight in the simple country pleasures, the rolling vines, plump wisterias, crackling log fires, sink-into sofas, and long, lazy breakfasts that are the trademark of Peppers Guest House Hunter Valley, that lovely rural retreat where it all began 20 years ago. | |||||
|
