The Lodge at Paratiho Farms may be the best-designed resort on all of New Zealand. The rooms have been thought out to the finest details (including lots of space for your luggage and separate night-lights for each side of the bed). The decor is stunning. The service is first-rate. The food is gourmet and probably the best we had at any lodge (we stayed at several). But the problem is that the lodge is about an hour away from the nearest city, Nelson. And they do not have drivers to take you to the city, unless you want to pay several hundred NZ dollars (which most people who stay there would look on as pocket change, I guess). So the only way to enjoy this place is to stay there and not go anywhere during your time booked at the lodge. If you're a tourist and you want to see anything, you're going to be driving for an hour or more because it really is in the middle of nowhere.
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