Green Lodging in New Zealand

Beautiful Wanaka Homestead (www.wanakahomestead.co.nz) combines luxury and sustainability. The lodge's hot water, which supplies the taps, hot tub, and cozy underfloor heating, is solar heated. This lodge has been highly commended with a New Zealand EnergyWise award, recognizing efforts that have reduced "brought-in" power needs by half. The lodge uses low-energy appliances and controllers, and it was designed and built with energy efficiency and environmental sensitivity in mind. Wanaka's Minaret Lodge (www.minaretlodge.co.nz) is another luxurious facility, which practices eco-sensitivity in its daily routines, using biodegradable cleansers, organic produce and fair-trade coffee, energy-efficient lightbulbs, and the great Kiwi answer to energy-efficient insulation: sheep's wool in the walls.