The Wilderness Lodge
Legendary lodges, heli-access and the Southern Alps, kept for you. A private, tailored journey of 6-8 days in Queenstown & the South Island, Australia & New Zealand, designed end to end by a Forest Travel advisor — with Virtuoso privileges at the finest luxury hotels, from US$15,000 per traveler.
- Nature · Private
- Ideal length: 6-8 days
- Best time: From December to March for summer and from June to August for snow, the best window for Queenstown & the South Island.
- Private guiding, access and transfers throughout
- From US$15,000 per traveler — a starting point, tailored to you
- Designed one-to-one by a Forest Travel advisor
- Virtuoso privileges at the finest luxury hotels
Legendary lodges, heli-access and the Southern Alps, kept for you. A private, tailored journey of 6-8 days in Queenstown & the South Island, Australia & New Zealand, designed end to end by a Forest Travel advisor — with Virtuoso privileges at the finest luxury hotels, from US$15,000 per traveler.
Two nations at the edge of the world offer coral gardens, ancient rainforest, glacial peaks and some of the most remote luxury on earth.
When to go
From December to March for summer and from June to August for snow is the best window for Queenstown & the South Island. Your advisor times it to the light, the crowds and your own calendar.
The experiences
A sense of what this journey can hold — each one arranged privately and shaped to you:
- A stay at one of the finest luxury lodges, kept to yourselves for the season.
- A helicopter into the Southern Alps to a valley no road can reach.
- A private fly-fishing morning on a river the lodge holds for its guests.
- A guided walk to an alpine summit with lunch waiting where you arrive.
A sense of the rhythm
The South Island lodges set a rhythm of wild mornings and long, quiet evenings. You fly out to the peaks, fish the clear rivers, then return to a fire and a table that seems made only for you. The Southern Alps hold the days in stillness.
How to do it well
The counsel our advisors give travelers planning this journey:
- The great lodges are few and small; secure them well ahead.
- Heli-access opens country most travellers never glimpse.
- Ask us for a lodge with private river rights for the finest fishing.
- The shoulder seasons bring quiet and some of the clearest light.
What only your advisor can open
The difference between a good trip and an unrepeatable one is access — and access is a relationship, not a booking. Every guide, room and moment is chosen and sequenced for you.
Who it's for
Travelers who value privacy, time and doing it once — beautifully — and who would rather have one trusted advisor orchestrate every detail than assemble it themselves.
Estimated investment
From US$15,000 per traveler, based on double occupancy — scaled to your dates, party size and level of privacy. A starting point, not a final quote; confirmed once your advisor tailors the itinerary.
Designed entirely around you
Nothing here is a package. A Forest Travel advisor shapes the whole journey and stays one message away before and throughout your trip.
Your Virtuoso privileges
As a Virtuoso member, Forest Travel includes benefits reserved for Virtuoso guests at the finest luxury hotels, at no added cost: a room upgrade on arrival when available, daily breakfast for two, a property credit toward dining or spa, and early check-in with late check-out when the hotel allows.
Continue exploring Queenstown & the South Island
Part of our Queenstown & the South Island travel guide. Related private journeys:
Begin the conversation
Tell a Forest Travel advisor how you like to travel and they will design The Wilderness Lodge around you — privately, every Virtuoso privilege included. Request your private consultation →
Questions, answered.
A lakeside lodge keeps Queenstown and its comforts within easy reach. A remote alpine retreat trades all of that for silence, scale and true seclusion. The lake is the gentler choice; the mountains, the more elemental.
Yes. This journey can hold a private fly-fishing morning on a river the lodge keeps for its guests, so the water is yours. Our advisors' counsel is to ask for a lodge with private river rights for the finest fishing. After a morning on the clear South Island rivers, you return to a fire and a table that seems made only for you.
Heli-access opens country most travellers never glimpse. On this journey, a helicopter can carry you into the Southern Alps to a valley no road can reach, arranged privately and shaped to you. It pairs naturally with the other alpine experiences, such as a guided walk to an alpine summit with lunch waiting where you arrive.
As early as you can. The great South Island lodges are few and small, so our advisors recommend securing them well ahead. This journey can include a stay at one of the finest luxury lodges, kept to yourselves for the season, and that kind of access depends on planning early and on the advisor's relationships, not simply a booking.
Plan on 6-8 days. That gives the South Island lodges time to set their rhythm of wild mornings and long, quiet evenings: flying out to the peaks by helicopter, a private fly-fishing morning on a river the lodge holds for its guests, a guided walk to an alpine summit with lunch waiting, then a return each night to a fire and a table that seems made only for you. Because the great lodges are few and small, secure your dates well ahead.
As a private, tailored journey it starts from roughly US$15,000 per traveler (double occupancy) and scales with your dates, party and level of privacy — a starting point, never a fixed package price. Your advisor confirms the figure once the itinerary is tailored.
October through April, when the Southern Hemisphere summer opens the vineyards and the alpine trails, the season for helicopter flights into the Southern Alps, guided summit walks and mornings on the clear rivers. The shoulder seasons bring quiet and some of the clearest light. Your Forest Travel advisor times the journey to the light, the crowds and your own calendar.
On The Wilderness Lodge journey in Queenstown and the South Island, a guided walk leads you to an alpine summit, and lunch is waiting where you arrive. Like every experience on this journey, it is arranged privately and shaped to you. It belongs to the wild mornings that set the rhythm of the South Island lodges, in the stillness of the Southern Alps, before you return to a fire and a long, quiet evening.
A day at a South Island wilderness lodge follows a rhythm of wild mornings and long, quiet evenings. You might fly out to the peaks of the Southern Alps by helicopter, fish the clear rivers or walk to an alpine summit, then return to a fire and a table that seems made only for you. Throughout, the Southern Alps hold the days in stillness.
Australia & New Zealand
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