Discover New Zealand in all its luxurious glory

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  Fjords of South Island, New Zealand

Space. Great, glorious, soul-rinsing miles of empty, open space, with views that stretch for ever. That, plus a unique take on the five-star experience, is how New Zealand wows its visitors.

I knew it was going to be some picnic when our host, Louisa “Choppy” Patterson, pointed to the three coolbags she'd plonked down on a 1,500m Alpine precipice overlooking the South Island's Lake Waitipu.

“In that you'll find drinks,” she said, retreating to her still-whirring helicopter. “The middle one's your picnic. And that,” she grinned, pointing at the third, “is your entertainment. Enjoy. We'll collect you in a couple of hours.”

New Zealanders, my partner and I soon came to learn, are masters of the understatement. They're dry. Quietly confident. Down to earth, capable and can-do. And, despite their no-nonsense attitude to life, they really understand luxury - of the underplayed type. The kind of luxury that makes you grin from ear to ear because it’s so simple and so refreshingly unpretentious.

As the owner of one of New Zealand's more upmarket tour companies, Over the Top, Patterson certainly understands what makes a visitor go "wow".

She has helicoptered a jazz quartet onto a mountaintop to sing happy birthday to a billionaire, conjured up a strawberry and champagne breakfast on a glacier, created private cellar tours of family-run wine estates. For a cool £100,000, she will also happily come up with a bespoke, two-week helicopter tour for four around the country, staying in elite private establishments - and make it carbon-neutral, too.

Our own morning's treat was not just being whizzed to a precipice in the chic pilot's new baby: a James Bond-style B4 Eurocopter, with deep grey leather seats and 280-degree views. It was discovering the contents of the three coolbags she'd left us: a silver platter of smoked salmon and warm bread in one. Iced champagne and two long-stemmed flutes in the second. And, in the third, a wind-up gramophone (the "entertainment" she had promised), with a stock of spare needles and sentimental 1920s vinyl that even the local eagles seemed to enjoy, as they circled above the jaunty tunes wafting into the spring skies.

In the southernmost isles of the Earth, great open spaces are key to a great holiday here, as Patterson explains. "Truly escaping is such a luxury for most Europeans. And, let's face it, with only four million people, we've got a fair bit of space here to share. So what we try to do for our clients is to make the land seem like their own - to take them to special places and leave them alone to drink it all in. To really relax. But in proper style.”

Shock of the new

While much of the country is inhabited by 50 million sheep and, accordingly, a lot of farmers to whom the word ‘style’ doesn't mean much, there are - thanks to a flux of upmarket visitors from Australia, UK, America and Japan - ample bespoke services on offer, besides a tempting range of five-star restaurants, designer restaurants and boutique hotels.

As well as a raft of international hotels, such as the Hilton in Auckland, with its glass penthouses overlooking the harbour, there are alluring properties that savvy locals have turned into luxurious guesthouses.

The cool Mollies, in Auckland, for instance (www.mollies.co.nz), with a grand piano in the bedrooms; the relaxed, aptly named Boatshed, on the beach at Waiheke Island (www.boatshed.co.nz); the private, 1930s Okareka estate in Rotorua (www.okareka.co.nz); or the seven-suite, 19th-century Otahuna Lodge (www.otahuna.co.nz).

Then there's Rahimoana, the exclusive-use house at Eagle's Nest (www.eaglesnest.co.nz), which at almost £10,000 a night (with private butler, housekeeper and luxury car, of course) is one of the most expensive properties in the world.

The food, too, is pretty special. In Auckland I nibbled on Kiwi-style snacks in Peter Gordon's gourmet tapas bar, Bellota, in the city's iconic Sky Tower. Later, at the Hilton, looking out over a panorama of yachts and calm, glacial lakewater, I dipped perfectly grilled scallops into a creamy cauliflower purée.

And even the simple meals were good. At a layby outside Kaikoura, I stopped at Nin's Bin - a caravan overlooking the beach - and forked fresh lobster from its shell while watching the waves crash.

The next day, at a seal colony, I watched the creatures cavort while sipping home-made chowder warmed by local entrepreneurs on their beach barbecue, accompanied first by a glass of grassy, fresh sauvignon blanc from Marlborough and then a chocolatey pinot noir from Otago.

The late English wit Sir Clement Freud once observed that he couldn't give an opinion on New Zealand because when he was there, "it appeared to be shut". That was obviously decades ago. The new, modern New Zealand is open - and in some style.

When to go

The summer months of December to February are the most popular. Best visit in October and November or March and April when rooms are easier to come by. The weather is coldest and wettest from May to September.

Where to look

While there seems to be an ever-increasing range of five-star treats for visitors to enjoy, finding a single tour operator to put them all together isn't easy. Many can be arranged through the slick New Zealand tourist board. Others can be sorted through the upmarket operators Seasonz (www.seasonz.co.nz) and Ahipara (www.ahipara.com). They can suggest dozens of itineraries as well as luxurious options such as hiring a Porsche convertible to cruise the coastal roads (www.smartcars. co.nz), having riding lessons in the mountainous Moonlight Country (www.moonlightcountry.co.nz), or taking a wine tour near Auckland airport instead of hanging about in departures (www.villamaria.co.nz).

www.newzealand.com/travel/UK-Ireland

By Lisa Grainger  © Telegraph Media Group 2009

Location: New Zealand