Going outside the guidebook in Kingston

Throughout our trip, we’ve been using the Lonely Planet NZ guidebook, which we’ve found to be relatively accurate and pretty thorough. This is why we’re so excited that we managed to visit a part of NZ that’s not in the guidebook (see lack of NZ results)! Not surprisingly, the town of Kingston has only ~300 residents and very few places for travelers to stay. But given its beautiful natural setting at the southern shore of Lake Wakatipu, halfway between Queenstown and Te Anau, we’re a little curious now why more folks haven’t started exploring there.

As luck would have it, we found the Lakes End Lodge on AirBnB only a week after they officially opened. The owner/operators, John and Kim, moved to Kingston from Auckland from London/South Africa after viewing the property, and have since made lots of cool additions. Highlights included a secret room behind a bookcase, a hidden trap door entrance to a media room (ie attic with projector), a floating bed that doesn’t touch the floor, homebrew, and a number of other interesting things. You can stay in a big bus they’ve parked on the property or in a storage container, but we opted for a regular room. And in addition to all the cool stuff, we had a great time getting to know them and the other folks staying there as well.

While there, we got to kayak out on the lake – super blue and calm – as well as hike up the Shirtail Track to a scenic viewpoint above town. We also took advantage of pretty good internet and a rainy morning to catch up on some posts.  : )