Kowhai Lane Lodge

Great hosts with impressive knowledge of Stewart Island.

Great lodge a few minutes walk from the town. Nice and peaceful with everything you need. Iris and Peter are great hosts and we had a fantastic time. Recommended.

Nothing.

Lovely self contained flat in a well cared for garden

All good

Peter and Iris were friendly and informative. They picked us up and dropped us off anyplace we needed to go that was too far to walk easily. We had a great visit to Stewart Island

Wonderful hosts! We were collected from the ferry by Peter & taken to lodge where we met Iris. Ulva Island trip to view birdlife, flora & fauna, plus saw sea-lions on a beach. Birdlife around lodge was fantastic with Kaka feeding apple from our hands! All in all a fabulous place to stay, comfy & a quiet location! Would highly recommend!

Weather! Very changeable, but that's island life! And an awful return trip on ferry due to very high winds!

Well located in Oban with lovely view of Half Moon Bay Peter very welcoming host, knowledgeable guide for area activities Pick up at ferry , short tour of Oban

Hour long lecture of rules No wifi

This is a very difficult review to write. Booking.com has been "reminding" me to write for a month. To see why I've been avoiding writing this review see "What didn't you like?" below. First, our room was one of several in a house, more like an Airbnb than a Booking.com property. We had a great view of Half Moon Bay, with a room that was more than adequate in size and comfort. The setting was beautiful. The icing on the cake was Peter, the husband half of the husband and wife host team. Our experience with Peter was wonderful! He was extremely helpful, making himself available for the occasional drop-off or pick-up, and arrival and departure. More importantly, his tour of Ulva Island was extra-special, not to be missed. Peter was, for a number of years, the sole park ranger on Stewart Island. We only scratched the surface of his knowledge of the Island's flora and fauna. In spite of my ratings I highly recommend Peter and the Kowhai Lodge, assuming you deal with the problem discussed below ahead of time.

The little issues: the walk up hill to the Lodge from the "town"; thin doors; small, but adequate bathroom; and the lack of easily accessible electric sockets near the bed. (I suggest power strips on both sides of the bed.) The Lodge required a nonrefundable payment in full. Now for the real problem, and why I have been so reluctant to write this review: Iris, the wife half of the host team. In the beginning she was as sweet as honey, but you can tell the affect was strained, and she wanted to control the introduction to the property....all business. She recited all of her rules and regulations as if we were children. She kept interrupting Peter who was giving us useful information. Fortunately, Iris was pretty much absent for the rest of our stay, until the end. The end was a disaster, though. We had arranged with Peter to be out of our room and waiting for him to take us to the ferry at 10:00 a.m. Iris, though, had it in her mind that we were leaving much earlier, around 7:30 a.m. We were awakened by knocking on doors near our room, then on our door. The next thing we know, Iris has opened our door while we were still in bed, barely awake. It took me awhile to explain that we were taking the later ferry. Iris was actually arguing with me about our departure time. The moral of this story is to make sure that Iris knows, in no uncertain terms, that she is NOT to open your door, for any reason, during your stay at the lodge. Her sense of entitlement in that regard is more than disturbing. Finally, we were on the driveway at 9:55 a.m. for a 10:00 ride to the ferry. Peter had just left with another couple rather than waiting for us. Iris was unapologetic and kept arguing with me, accusing me of being argumentative! When Pete arrived she said, "Just get in the van and leave." At that point we couldn't wait to get out of there.