Skylark Cabin - Ben Ohau, NZ
SKYLARK CABIN
The Long Way Around - BEAR’s Guide to New Zealand’s South Island
I have been hanging out to write about this one.
Skylark Cabin makes it into BEAR’s top stays - this place is incredible. It looks like I’m not alone with this opinion - Skylark Cabin was rated Airbnb’s 2022 Best Nature Stay, and Airbnb’s 2024 Great Kiwi Farmstay. You’re in for something special!
Skylark Cabin was the very first stop on our jam-packed New Zealand itinerary. We flew from Sydney to Queenstown, hopped in a hire car and drove to Twizel (via a detour to Ferg Bakery for mandatory car nibbles). As we were driving, we caught the most gorgeous “reverse sunset” as I like to call it (the pinky purple colours that are always east when the sun sets).
By the time we arrived, it was dark, and I mean dark dark. Skylark Cabin sits pretty in the world-acclaimed Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve, meaning you get to see thousands of stars. On the drive in, we passed a street sign that said “Enjoy the Stars,” which felt like a very cute (and very accurate) addition to the region.
According to Bill Bryson’s A Very Short History of Nearly Everything you can only see about 2,000 stars with the naked eye at any given time from any given point on Earth. While about 6,000 stars are technically visible to the naked eye from Earth’s entire surface, only a third of them can be seen from a single location. This number changes dramatically with visual aids like binoculars or telescopes, which raise the number of visible stars from 50,000 (binoculars) to 300,000 (telescope)! Skylark Cabin houses an incredibly strong telescope for guests to use throughout their stay.
Skylark Cabin has a mammoth skylight carved into the ceiling above the bed. This means, to stargaze, you don't have to get up. Falling asleep under a sky full of stars, completely snug in a cosy bed, warmed by the wood fire down the hallway, was pretty hard to beat. Getting up in the night for a glass of water isn’t even a chore because you get views of stars, fluffy robes, and underfloor heating.
The Mackenzie Region is known for its salmon (it even hosts a salmon and wine festival), and Skylark leans into that! On arrival, our beautiful hosts Garry and Liz left us a welcome note, a platter (with smoked salmon, of course), some Whittaker’s choccie, and a bottle of local pinot noir! We devoured this on our first night, sitting outside in the dark with the stars illuminating our meal! You could feel the frost settling in for the evening. The air was crisp in that way that makes you feel like you can properly breathe - reminding me so much of Tasmania.
The other thing that really stood out was the silence. All you can hear is a light breeze drifting through the trees. Silence is something I definitely took for granted before moving to Sydney. Skylark Cabin felt like a bit of a circuit breaker - made even more special by coming straight from Sydney’s traffic and sirens and people (not exactly conducive to a calm nervous system) to Twizel.
One of the greatest joys in my life is arriving to a new stay in the dark, then waking up to a surprise view! I woke early because I was hoping to catch a sunrise and my oh my it did not disappoint. The frost from the night before looked sparkly in the grass so walking through the field genuinely felt like magic. The crunch of frost underfoot and birdsong was all I could hear as I explored the property.
Tucked away into the tussock grass was an outdoor bath. I ran the hot water and had a cup of tea in the tub to warm up from my sunrise stroll! Once the day had properly broken I headed back inside to get ready. One of the perks of an architecturally designed stay is how considered everything feels - the path from the bath leads straight into the bathroom, so you don’t have to traipse wet tootsies.
After a rinse, we packed homemade sandwiches, and the Whittaker’s Garry and Liz left for us, rugged up in our best layers and drove to the trailhead of a hike we had being eyeing for months. Sealy Tarns Track - also known as the ‘Stairway to Heaven’ thanks to the 2,200 stairs that stand between the carpark and the alpine lake. It was very much worth the jelly quads and the tight calves!
After lunch at the summit, we made our way back down for a carpark beer before heading off again - this time to stay at Skylark Cabin’s sister property, Ruakahu Lodge.
Stray beautiful,
BEAR.
No robots were involved in the making of this journal.