The Airbnb(s) That Changed My Brain Chemistry
Kia Ora from New Zealand, the land that mastered the art of indoor/outdoor living.
The Jungle Retreat
Deep in the bush to the west of Auckland, I looked over at Paul and saw him gazing out of the floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors of our airbnb, pulled wide open to welcome the sounds and smells of the rain. I jokingly asked if he was enjoying his time in his enclosure.
The glass on half the walls really did feel like we were in a little inverted terrarium, in the best way possible.
This little jungle getaway was the last stop on our two week trip in New Zealand, and I pronounced it “the final boss of airbnbs” upon entering. It’s entirely contemporary, a design style I’ve always felt was at odds with my “cottagecore” sensibilities. However for a vacation rental in a scenic destination, I was thrilled, and maybe it moved the needle (a tiny bit!) towards pushing me to embrace modern design (something Paul was happy to hear, given his design aesthetics are much more modern-leaning).
The airbnb also had a very cute name—called ‘The Little Bush House’ (bush serving as shorthand for native forest).
We spent a blissful few days in our little hideaway, only venturing into town once—a 45 minute uphill trek in the rain—where we had lunch in a treehouse-like cafe.
We spent our last night curled up on the couch watching The Lord of the Rings, a fitting end to our time in New Zealand made even more perfect after having visited Hobbiton just a few days prior.
The Apartment by the Bay
Going back to the (somewhat click bait-ey) headline of this post, (sorry I can’t help it, blame working in social media), our Auckland airbnb was just one of several airbnbs we stayed in throughout New Zealand that featured sliding glass doors overlooking a spectacular view.
On the coast of Christchurch in the town of Cass Bay (coincidentally close to the epicenter of the devastating 2011 earthquake, though we didn’t know it at the time) we stayed in an apartment overlooking the water.
The ‘Luxury Cass Bay Retreat’ was everything it promised to be, and we just so happened to arrive on a weekend when the farmers market was operating, giving us a chance to eat our newly purchased, freshly baked sourdough toast with farmer’s market pesto on the patio.
I asked Paul to bring what was left of the pesto and bread on the the plane with us the next day and it looked a little worse for wear by the end of the flight. As we were deplaning the flight attendant asked in a charming NZ accent—"Is that rubbish?” pointing to the sad bag and Paul responded “No, it’s pesto.” Suffice to say I could not stop laughing.
Randomly enough on that same plane ride we had a surprise improv appearance by comedian Rhys Darby (of Flight of the Conchords & Our Flag Means Death fame).
The Tiny House in Te Anau
The last b&b of the bunch was actually our first stop, and while smaller and objectively less “impressive” than than the rest, the tiny home gave us a cozy bed to fall into after 20+ hours of travel. Called ‘The Fox and Fantail’, it was nestled in the town of Te Anau bordering the Fiordlands, and served as our home base as we went on arguably one of the most memorable expeditions I’ve ever experienced—kayaking through the Doubtful Sound. (But that one deserves its own little write up, to come).
Te Anau was generally a deeply memorable part of the trip, but something I will never, ever forget was the Te Anau Trout Observatory. If you need a laugh, I beg you to read the reviews. It’s a bizarre place—you enter what looks like an abandoned subterranean bunker through a rickety turnstile that requires a $2 coin (we had no cash on us and had to come back another day).
Once inside you’re in a dark, plywood box where one wall has the saddest unfinished bench you’ve ever seen. This serves as the spot for you to sit opposite the window and see into the tank and watch 8 trout swim in circles.
There was a QR code on the wall you could scan to feed the fish, paying digitally to have food automatically dispensed into the tank. It took us 24 hours to get in because we needed to track down a $2 coin, but once you’re inside you can feed the fish with the click of a button. We found the irony hilarious, second only to the absolutely bonkers google reviews.
Back to the BnBs
While booking cool airbnbs off the beaten path has always been a key strategy in how I plan trips, Paul and I have been fostering a secret dream to one day open our own farm & BnB. This trip has provided us ample inspiration—especially when it comes to the indoor/outdoor nature of the accommodations. You might just see hints of the Little Bush House or The Fox and Fantail in whatever form that secret dream takes in the future.
As always, if you made it this far—thanks for reading <3