Confirming the hottest travel trend of 2011, Poronui Luxury Sport Lodge now offers an increasing number of guests the chance to go ‘glamping’.
The Safari Camp, built well-away from the main facility, offers guests an experience reminiscent of the ‘Poronui pioneers’. Groups of visitors who tire of soaking up the pleasures and refinement of the English hunting style lodge can now opt to flit away for a night or two and enjoy such earthy pleasures as a meal eaten with friends around a campﬁre.
The safari themed tents all feature hot gas showers, crisp cotton sheets and ample space to have meals outdoors while listening to the wild Mohaka River. Guests can cook the food they have caught that day or soothe their bones next to the fire after a strenuous day of riding. Glamping Poronui style includes a visit to sweetly the appointed cabins featuring canvas roofs, with timber walls and ﬂoors.
The 16,000 acre property representing an untamed slice of New Zealand’s North Island, provides the ‘wild at heart’ a chance to escape. There are vast opportunities to trek, hunt, fly-fish and horse ride within the expansive grounds. Poronui is also equipped with all the modern-cons including; an olympic standard sporting clays course, sauna, gymnasium and underground wine cellar. Purchased by the Westervelt Company in 2007, the property has been developed by American, Mark Blake since 1998 and continues to be an ethically and sustainably maintained property.
Poronui Lodge built in 1998, added its original the Safari Camp in 1999 and made the addition of the glamorous Blake House facility during the year 2000. During the ‘return to nature’ trend in tourism Poronui managers says they have recently enjoyed an increase in the number of guests requesting time away from the hotel style facility and guest wishing to customise their experience and try all parts of the estate.
Poronui is 4½ hours drive from Auckland, or a 25 minute flight from Auckland and a 40 minute drive from Taupo Airport. A flight from Christchurch to Taupo takes one hour, plus the 40 minute drive from the airport to the property. Poronui is 5 hours drive from Wellington.