Four spacious, luxurious ensuite rooms comprise the guest wing. Quartz floors (with subfloor heating) and panoramic (double glazed) windows are a conduit to the massive outdoors. The finest cotton, wool and natural fibres ensure your sleeping comfort. Natural, sensitive, New Zealand-made lotions and washes are yours in the bathrooms. The dining hall, adjacent to the leather-furnished guest living room looks out over the lake, and next to this is the huge kitchen - Sue’s domain. In pride of place is the immense, ancient, iron wood-fired Aga stove, swapped to Mike for a bottle of whisky.

For a quiet place to chill, the informal adjacent lounge provides guests with a library of written works relating to New Zealand history, nature, culture and legend. The walls are adorned by works by local artists, and share the space with pieces from lesser, foreign luminaries such as Chagall and Dali. ADSL links you to the outside world, and a current MacIntosh computer, available for your use, demonstrates that the proprietors are indeed people of fine taste and discernment. A quiet place to relax, to contact your family and friends, to read a book, or to de-stress. From what?

Note: There is no Plasma TV in your room. We suggest you finish that book. Silverpine is a television-free zone.