Blanket Bay

Blanket Bay holds fifty-five hectares - about a hundred and thirty-six acres - on the shore of Lake Wakatipu near Glenorchy, forty-five minutes up the road from Queenstown. Tom Tusher bought the ground in 1972, when it was overgrown, as a private retreat, and what he first had in mind was a fishing hut. The lodge opened twenty-seven years later, in 1999, and is regarded as the first of its kind on the South Island. The buildings borrow from the log cabins of Wyoming and Montana and from European alpine work, and chalets were added to the original house in later phases.

Twenty-seven years between the purchase and the opening is the fact that matters to this column. The land was not acquired to be a hotel and was not assembled to a brief; it was bought, held and only then opened, which is why the holding reads as a private estate that takes guests rather than as a resort with grounds. A hundred and thirty-six acres on that shore is a substantial piece of lake frontage, and the approach is a single road along the water. The house now employs sixty-two people and has taken more than forty thousand guests.

Bought in 1972, opened in 1999. The ground was held for twenty-seven years as a private retreat before it took a guest. The estate here is older than the lodge standing on it.

A hundred and thirty-six acres of lake shore. The frontage rather than the building is what this record counts, and the whole of it was assembled long before there was any intention of letting a room.

Sources

• Regional newspaper account - founders Pauline and Tom Tusher, Americans; the lodge opened in 1999; the land is fifty-five hectares, about a hundred and thirty-six acres, near Glenorchy on the shores of Lake Wakatipu; reached by Glenorchy Road, about forty-five minutes from Queenstown; Tom Tusher bought the land in 1972 as a personal retreat when it was overgrown, initially envisaging a simple fishing hut; regarded as the South Island's first lodge of its kind; the property employs sixty-two staff and has hosted over forty thousand guests; architecture drawing on log-cabin work from Wyoming and Montana with European alpine elements; chalets added during later construction phases
• The room and suite count is not stated in the source consulted and no figure is carried.
• Pauline and Tom Tusher are not yet held in the Library; no LHL-P code is linked and a code is requested.

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Booking

Private Resorts arranges each stay on request, quoting the rates available for the resort and dates. No benefit should be assumed unless it is confirmed in writing for the individual reservation.

Classified by The Resort Collection House · The Register · Edition 2026 · LHL-E-253
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