Nestled in a mountain beech forest clearing in the heart of the Southern Alps, this 24-four room lodge is surrounded by Arthur's Pass National Park.

Each of the spacious guestrooms have superb views and feature New Zealand timbers. Recent additions to the lodge are the four Alpine Lodges, which are separated from the main lodge and have been stylishly furnished with a super-king-size bed, a lounge and balcony that looks out to landscaped gardens and the mountains.

This is a high quality, professionally run operation. Maps help guests to explore the 20 kilometres of easy walking tracks on their own, or they can join in the lodges guided nature adventure programme.

Included in the tariff is a daily program of shorter, guided, nature and farm tours including mustering and sheep shearing, canoeing on high country lakes and exploring beech forest and tussock lands to look for birds and alpine plants. I was amazed at how much there was to learn about the environment, even in the immediate area around the lodge.

This lodge is associated with Wilderness Lodge Lake Moeraki in the rainforests of South Westland. Both are designed to show that well managed ecotourism can both protect the environment and provide employment to small communities.