Hilton Queenstown.
Helen Van Berkel checks into the Hilton Hotel and Resort, Queenstown.
Getting there: It's about an hour and 40 minute flight from Auckland and a five-minute drive from Queenstown airport to Kelvin Heights and the hotel. You might go around the block more than once to find the entrance —
it's on the left, halfway down the hill.
The check-in experience: Pulling up in a little Jucy Hyundai and wearing black jeans may not be the usual mode for Hilton guests — the valets certainly checked several times: "Are you sure you're staying here?" Were I an easily offended person I may have been offended.
Price: About $400 a night.
The accommodation: It involved a trip around the mulberry bush to find my room: a lift to level one, a walk along the corridor and another lift to the third floor. And there it was.
The facilities: My room had its own living area, a separate bedroom and a bathroom with a nice big bath. Outside the window were views of Wakatipu and a tribe of attention-seeking ducks that marauded on the lakeshore. A water taxi into town pulled up at the wharf directly outside.
