How to feel like a celebrity

MICHAEL DONALDSON

ROMANTIC: Enjoy a weekend of luxury living at Millbrook Resort Hotel and Spa’s stunning Millhouse.

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“Is that your helicopter out there?”

It’s not every day you’re asked that question. How many places have you been where there’s even a helicopter waiting outside in the first place? The inquirer probably thought it was a good joke or at least a conversation starter…  and had the good grace not to bat an eyelid when his question was answered with a yes.

We didn’t have time to register his reaction because, you know, the helicopter was waiting and we were off.

Welcome to our weekend of living like Brangelina. And the good news is all that unfolds over the next couple of pages could be yours if you win our fabulous competition (details on page six).

We’re greeted at the airport by our driver Finn, the first of many Irish people we meet over the next two days and the first of the many attentive staff at Millbrook who make you feel as if their world revolves around you.

He: I’ve been to Millbrook before to play golf but have never stayed at the resort. I am a bit worried my better half might find the whole weekend a bit too golfy and might get a bit bored while I spend four hours and 87 shots finding my away around the course.

She: It feels like we are in a theme park, being driven to our room in a golf buggy. It is like something from Golden Girls (showing my age here) but the place is pretty impressive, especially when you realise a lot of the buildings are historic and have been refurbished tastefully.

We cross a wooden bridge to a private road filled with really cute two-up two-down houses, all colourful with fabulous gardens. Everything is perfectly manicured and the flower beds are in bloom – it’s beautiful.

Our room is larger than most hotel rooms, with a huge comfortable bed and views over the golf course which keeps him happy. There’s a big bath and underfloor heating in the bathroom which keeps me happy.

While he goes out to play golf, I head out in the cold Otago morning to find the spa, a gorgeous, modern day spa that’s been named one of the top 10 spas in the world. I’m sent to the changing rooms with a luxurious dressing gown and when I work out what the very small paper contraption is, I realise that I’m to strip down and put on this most unflattering of lingerie, but not to worry, no one I know is going to see me in a paper thong and no doubt they’ve seen worse here. I hope! Even though it costs a bit extra, I recommend using the steam room. It reminds me of the Korean Baths in Sydney but far more luxurious. If it all gets too hot you can cool down in a private sitting room or on the balcony. The masseuse is attentive and focused on what needs attention – and she has her work cut out. It certainly isn’t once over lightly.

The sun is out and I am sipping lemongrass, licorice and aniseed tea on the balcony but my fabulous peaceful experience comes to an end when I see him, very hungry, stamping across the bridge in his golf gear, sweating, covered in sunblock, looking for me, having locked himself out of the room. This place is just too perfect for golf to interrupt.

He: Millbrook is made of three nines, Remarkable, Arrow and Coronet. The Arrow nine is closed for maintenance on our visit, which is a shame because the ninth hole on that course is a clever-looking par-3 which has a virtual island green with a creek in the front and a lake surrounding the back and sides.

The Remarkable nine feels like a golf resort, with the white sand bunkers highly visible from the elevated tees and the even more highly visible villas that line the wide and receptive fairways. From the blue tees it’s long enough to be challenging but its core function is as a juxtaposition to the Coronet nine which is incredible.

The Coronet nine feels much more that it belongs to the land in which it’s set. It’s less synthetic, more organic. There are rocky outcrops, sloped fairways, tiered greens and a wetlands area that culminates in the signature hole, the par-5 sixth, which offers a choice of two pathways to the green. My favourite hole is probably the fourth. Only 289m from the blue tees and with a wide, wide fairway beckoning, it looks easy on paper.

But we play golf on grass and the true test of this hole is the almost-blind approach into the small, elevated green.

She: While we are on the subject of golf, one annoying thing about golf resorts is that men come here in groups, often without their better halves and cannot help but regress to playground behaviour, beating their chests, so to speak, as if to say “Look how fabulous I am now” but even they could not ruin a lovely lunch in the sun.

He: I never show off when I’m away. The food at the Hole-In- One cafe is simple but classy – I have a steak sandwich with shoestring fries and a Moa beer while she has haloumi, eggplant and beetroot salad.

She: I’ve been to golf resorts before where there was little else to do but play golf, which is not so good when you have only ever completed a round of pitch and putt. But here there’s nearly too much to do – the swimming pool, gym, tennis, hot pools (more on that later), spa, bikes, or just sitting at the Hole-in-One cafe and watching people go by in their best argyle.

We manage to “borrow” a bike for a short ride around the perimeter of the resort, pedalling through a wedding which features groomsmen quaffing 750ml bottles of Speight’s – very Southern Man. I once considered the famed Rail Trail in Central Otago but have now decided that unless they can make a bike with a sofa for a seat I’m not going anywhere on two wheels for a long time.

If you can tear yourself away, you must go into Arrowtown for a look around; there are fantastic shops to browse through. To get there you just go to reception whenever you want and they’ll find someone to drive you – it’s ad hoc but it works and the understated ease of it all makes you feel special but not too fussed over. There are also free shuttles into Queenstown, so this is a great place to stay if you want to forget about the hassles of renting a car.

He: In the evening we’re off to Dorothy Brown’s, a charming boutique cinema, which is tucked down one of Arrowtown’s many little laneways. It has just 42 comfortable seats and the ceiling and walls are lined with padded retro fabric. It makes you feel as if you’re sitting inside a giant quilt.

We’re fractionally early so grab a bottle of Emerson’s Pilsner and have a beer in the sun on the balcony and peruse the small but well-stocked bookstore, which complements the arthouse movies on show. The cinema has a real ambience with the old-fashioned intermission – necessary because they have to swap the reels! – at which time you can pick up your pre-ordered cheese board and wine – much more sophisticated than munching on popcorn and icecream.

She: On the way out we stick our head in the Blue Door, a cool little pub which would be perfect in winter. With its low ceiling, roaring fire and cosy atmosphere it reminds me of somewhere in Donegal and you feel like you could just pop in, have a pint of Guinness, but we’re due for dinner at Arrowtown’s award- winning Saffron restaurant. It feels a little bit unadventurous to order scampi as an entree, especially as I had it the last time we were here in April, but it was so amazing I can’t wait to have it again. I want to leave room for dessert so have another entree instead of a main, going for roasted quail with preserved cherries, almond and sage brulee.

He: I can’t decide and take the waiter’s advice, choosing the spring tasting plate which is stunning – particularly the quail’s egg, white asparagus, rosemary pannacotta, the cherry tomato tart, the eggplant moussaka . . . decision-making is equally hard on the main course.

Give me a week and I could happily eat every single dish but we have only tonight and it is too hard not to have Saffron’s signature, a trio of curries. They change by the season and tonight it is tender and rich wild boar green curry, the fragrant and exotic red duck and pineapple curry and the salty sourness of the yellow curry with crab wontons.

We’re told head chef Peter Gawron has spent time in Copenhagen picking up tips at the world-famous Noma restaurant. His food was pretty special before and will only get better.

She: The plan to leave room for dessert has been an epic failure, not helped by the generosity of the service and the extra courses like the vodka-infused tomato – a kind of Bloody Mary amuse bouche – and the special offering of the whitebait done two ways.

We’re at our limit. The staff call Millbrook and in the time it takes to say “thank you” the van is here to take us back for a well-earned sleep.

He: With another day of all-out eating ahead of us, I show admirable discipline at breakfast.

She: For a change.

He: The temptation to play golf again is palpable but I didn’t get up early enough so we laze around reading the Sunday Star- Times and getting psyched up for our Heli Tours lunchtime helicopter ride to Mt Difficulty vineyard.

She: I am so excited about the helicopter I forget my fear of heights and foolishly jump into the front seat which has a window at your feet for looking down. I hang on for dear life.

He: The chopper’s blades slowly gather speed from thuk-thuk-thuk to ch-ch-ch to full on whoosh and suddenly you wobble into the air. It’s an exhilarating feeling and we’re both giggling. We skirt through the Kawarau Gorge looking down on the attractions of AJ Hackett’s bungy jump, Roaring Meg, the Gibbston Valley vineyard and the turquoise blue water of the Kawarau River. It’s mesmerising, thrilling and way too short a ride as we pop out the other side and see Cromwell, Lake Dunstan, and our destination, Mt Difficulty, perched on the slopes overlooking the lake at Bannockburn.

She: We land to people taking pictures – probably thinking someone exciting was about to land, after all, they are filming The Hobbit movie here, so how disappointing for them. Mt Difficulty is very unassuming – a simple brick building and a gravel car park – but inside it is a case of more brilliant food. I have butterfish and Cloudy Bay clams on squid ink pasta with a lemon butter sauce – it is beautiful, just really beautiful. A friend eats here every time she comes this way and now I understand why.

He: Pork loin with perfect crackling on Israeli couscous soaked in something that turned it the bright red colour of Christmas, with a honey thyme sauce and apricots – perfect Sunday lunch in a laid-back atmosphere. While we wait for our meals we do a wine- tasting and the range is so good we splash out on a mixed dozen of our favourites.

She: It is busy so we vacate our table and sit on the nearby sofas for a few minutes discussing helicopters and whether they are in fact the perfect way to travel. Once again people are watching, the helicopter, not us, taking off back to Millbrook. I wish I’d sat in the front on the way back as my confidence has soared with every glass of pinot gris.

He: The drizzle has set in but what the hell, I’ll play some more golf.

She: I’ve been looking for my sister’s 50th birthday present for so long she might just get it in time for her 51st. But I finally find it in Arrowtown – a greenstone necklace. And even though you can get English sweets almost anywhere these days, the Remarkable sweet shop, with its bright and colourful array of lollies, is too hard to resist and I might just have room to eat them in the coming weeks.

He: Back together at Millbrook we decide to make a quick visit to the gym and the hot pools. The special scales in the gym tell you your body fat percentage. They reveal some serious exercise is needed but we’re on holiday so head to the hot pools, which are nicely private, hidden among tussocky rock gardens. Sitting there with light rain falling on a Sunday afternoon is bliss and it really is an effort to drag ourselves out for another meal. But we manage.

She: The Millhouse at Millbrook is a stunning old building, an old stone mill, with a water wheel that still works and bare timber beams. It’s a perfect setting for a romantic dinner and we savour a perfectly paced meal with judicious wine matching. The highlight is possibly the mid-course palate- cleansing lime sorbet doused in tequila and served as a frozen margarita in a salt-laced glass. It is a little experimental, we’re told, but something that should stay.

He: The food and the service continue to be at the same excellent standard across the weekend. Everywhere we’ve been has been a study in excellence. If this is the celebrity lifestyle, we’ll take it, thanks. If only we could afford it.

FACT FILE

Where to stay: Millbrook Resort Hotel and Spa, Malaghans Rd, Arrowtown, Central Otago, ph 0800 800 604

Where to eat/drink: Hole-in-One cafe and The Millhouse at Millbrook, ph 0800 800 604 or email

The Blue Door pub, 18 Buckingham St, Arrowtown, ph 03 442 0885 Saffron, 18 Buckingham St, Arrowtown, ph 03 442 0131

Mt Difficulty, 73 Felton Rd, Bannockburn, Cromwell, ph 03 445 3445

What to do: Millbrook Day Spa, ph 03 441 7017 or email

Millbrook Golf, ph 03 441 7010 or email

Dorothy Brown’s cinema and bar, Buckingham St, Arrowtown, ph 03 442 1968

Heli Tours, Queenstown International Airport, 1 Sir Henry Wigley Drive, Frankton, ph 0800 435 486

– Sunday Star Times

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