Focus on Design In March 2025, the century-young Huka Lodge reopened after a $25 million, year-long redesign. The world-renowned luxury lodge on the banks of the emerald-green Waikato River had been purchased by Beckons' capital partners in 2021, who identified the need to extend the property’s main lodge lounging spaces to accommodate up to 50 discerning guests, while adding new wellness grounds including two spa treatment rooms, a sauna, gym, surprise contrast shower and steaming hot plunge pool. Huka Lodge is held close to the heart of many returning guests as well as local Kiwi residents, who were interested to see Huka Lodge’s rich heritage and remarkable history preserved. Plans for the reimagined lodge needed to strike a delicate balance between appealing to the needs of a future generation of high-end, world-travelled guests and maintaining the look, feel and spirit of the hundred-year-old lodge. Several of the original furnishings have been reupholstered and restored.
Architects & Designers Christian Anderson Architects Auckland-based architect Christian Anderson was appointed for the design, having been recommended by Virginia Fisher. Christian had previously worked under former Huka Lodge owner Alex van Heeren on the build of the Alan Pye Cottage, one of the two ultra-premium owner's style residences at Huka Lodge. The owner’s residence style cottage is named for Alan Pye who established the original fishers’ camp in 1924, offering guests direct access to the river’s prized trout and setting in place a reputation for world-class flyfishing in the Taupō region. Today, Christian Anderson Architects brings more than twenty years’ experience in high-end residential projects including Millbrook Home, Rural House and most recently Huka Lodge. Christian Anderson operates from a Ponsonby, Central Auckland studio.
Virginia Fisher Designer Virginia Fisher was first commissioned by Alex van Heeren in 1984 to lead the interior design for the luxury lodge. It was the first big break for Virginia and paved the way for several high-end design projects over the ensuing years. Honouring the homely, welcoming feel of the lodge in her centenary renovation, Virginia was re-engaged to lead the interiors some forty years on. Virginia’s signature tartans have featured heavily in past fit outs, along with rich, regal colours that offer a sense of occasion. Antique furniture pieces and art works have been personally sourced to create a sense of home, and to complement the flowing river and superb gardens just outside. In this iteration, guests will be pleased to see a contemporary, more subtle tartan in place. Virginia has set a 1920s and 30s theme to the interiors, in keeping with the period that Alan Pye first opened Huka Lodge to guests.
HUKA LODGE / RESERVE@BECKONS.COM / +64 7 222 4555 / HUKALODGE.COM / BECKONS.COM
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