Welcome to T Wanderlust, a new travel newsletter from the editors of T Magazine. Twice a month, we’ll recommend global destinations and hotels worth visiting. Sign up here to find us in your inbox every other Friday, along with our T List newsletter each Wednesday. And you can always reach us at tlist@nytimes.com.
New Zealand
A Secluded Homestead in the Southern Alps
On New Zealand’s sparsely populated South Island, an alpine retreat has opened in the windswept Craigieburn Valley. Flanked by three ski fields in the Craigieburn Range and nestled near limestone formations once used as shelter by the Ngāi Tahu, the traditional Māori stewards of the land, Flockhill Lodge is a four-bedroom homestead set within Flock Hill Station, a working sheep farm comprising 36,000 acres. Located near Arthur’s Pass National Park, the lodge was designed by the architect Jonathan Coote, of the Auckland-based firm Warren and Mahoney, to give guests a real sense of place. “When you’re here, you’re absolutely consumed by the scale and majesty of the landscape,” says Coote, whose straightforward approach includes timber, limestone and tinted concrete cast in slim layers, as well as a simple pitched timber roof, an ode to the utilitarian farm structures scattered around the homestead. Each of the four bedrooms features organic New Zealand-made interiors: wool-and-bamboo silk rugs by Nodi, hand-blown glass lamps by Monmouth Glass Studio and reclaimed rimu-wood bed frames topped with Merino Dreamwool mattresses and alpaca blankets produced on a farm near Dunedin. Along with the pool, hot tub and firepit on the expansive terrace, the rooms are positioned in a straight line so as not to interrupt the views of glimmering Lake Pearson and Sugarloaf Mountain. Accessible via a 25-minute helicopter ride or a 90-minute drive from Christchurch, the lodge includes a private chef and an attendant who can advise guests on activities to enjoy during their stay, from mountain biking on the single-track trails in nearby Craigieburn Forest Park to hiking along the Waimakariri, one of the largest braided rivers in New Zealand. Rooms from $7,300 per night, two-night minimum; flockhillnz.com.
After a two-year search for a restoration project in France’s Loire Valley, the Swiss entrepreneur Mira Grebenstein found the place of her dreams: the Château Louise de la Vallière, built in 1236. Louise de la Vallière was the favorite of Louis XIV’s five official mistresses, or Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at NYT > Travel…