There's something refreshingly personal about QT Hotels and that's certainly apparent at QT Queenstown.
If its views of Lake Wakatipu aren't refreshing enough, then maybe the views of the Remarkables will be.
If the freshly made cocktail in your room ready to go upon your arrival isn't refreshing enough, then maybe the hot tub that appears to be as deep as the lake itself will be.
The team behind QT Hotels put a lot of attention into the design and aesthetic of their buildings and interiors. In terms of attention to detail, one thing I noticed immediately was the casual placing of a blanket on the bottom of the bed.
A more traditional hotel would have these blankets perfectly parallel with the bottom of the be. It may just be a small thing, but it's becoming more and more common in hotels at the moment.
Eat:
The hotel's restaurant, Reds, has a good mixture of casual drinking areas as well as more formal dinner tables.
There are plenty of cocktails on the menu and staff are attentive and friendly.
Hugely important for me is their flexibility when it comes to adapting meals for those, like myself, with allergies. There's nothing worse than a stubborn chef who can't comprehend why someone would want to change their meal.
Once you've had dinner, it’s easy to be drawn to one of the many relaxing seats lined up facing out the window. Sit, chat and relax as the light slowly fades away over Queenstown.
And it fades slowly. I was surprised that when the clock hit 10pm, it felt much more like 8pm.
Stay:
Now about that previously mentioned bath. It's so deep James Cameron could launch a search for the bottom of it.
I was travelling with my mother who would have been absolutely fine with her first trip to Queenstown consisting of just a very long bath, that's how good it was. She even got up early the following morning to have a second one.
There's bath salts and bubble bath to complete this most luxurious experience. The only thing missing is a view of the mountains, but you get plenty of that in the bedroom which has a small deck allowing you to open up the doors and breath in the fresh mountainous air.
The bed was comfortable - not too soft, not too hard, allowing for a fresh early wake up in time for breakfast and a short adventure.
Play:
This trip to Queenstown was the first South Island experience for my mum, so a visit to Arrowtown was a must-do experience.
We had intended to catch a bus there, but both the information centre and the bus stops themselves led us to the wrong bus stop location and we watched our bus - the only one for the next hour - drive past us in the opposite direction.
Waiting wasn't an option as we would soon have a plane to catch so be decided to Uber. Don't ask about how much it cost.
Arrowtown itself reminds me of a Universal Studios movie set designed to imitate a tiny little village. It just fits the description of a small town so perfectly - from the shops, to the people and the architecture.
After buying a couple of Lotto tickets (something I always do in small towns), we managed to get the bus back to Queenstown. By this time the rain was pouring hard, so it made the idea of the short trip coming to an end a bit more bearable.
It was a short trip, for mum it was enough of a taster for her to want to head back there. Although I'm not sure if that is to see the amazing scenery or to get back to the amazing bath at the QT - either way the trip was a fantastic way to spend a weekend.
Dan stayed as an invited guest of QT Hotel Queenstown.
