Hot spot: Minaret Station, New Zealand
Jeff Chu
A two-year-old luxury camp on New Zealand's South Island that will forever spoil camping elsewhere for you. Nestled deep in a pristine valley on the edge of the Southern Alps (far right), Minaret Station, which is part of a working farm, is so remote it can be reached only by helicopter.
While there's decent Wi-fi throughout the camp, the rooms have no televisions. And, unless you bring your satphone, you'll get no cellular signals.
Precedent. The Wallis family, which owns and operates Minaret Station, figured it was a good spot because a herders' hut had stood in the same place here for decades.
You'll be in the gifted culinary hands of chef Paulina Corvalan Tapia, who will cater to your preferences, though you'd be wise to let her have her gourmet way. Her cuisine is inflected by the flavours of her native Chile (never say no if she's serving flan for dessert) with nods to East Asia (her stir-fried abalone with ginger and scallion would satisfy Hong Kong's most finicky foodies). The well-stocked bar offers a taste New Zealand's famed vineyards. And you can dine at the communal table, alfresco on the terrace outside or in privacy on your own deck.
Almost all the meat - lamb, beef and venison - comes from the farm. If you choose to take a helicopter excursion to the West Coast, a diver might go with you; while you're strolling the beach, he'll dive for rock lobster and abalone for dinner that night. But many of the provisions do have to be flown in.
No, but a nearby waterfall powers the camp, via a mini-hydroelectric plant, for much of the year. (There's a back-up generator for the dry season.)
