Wake up in a dream home

Up a quiet gravel road five minutes from Wanaka is a rural retreat offering Kiwi hospitality in five-star luxury.

Cardrona Terrace Estate is an Italian-style house set on a 20-hectare property with an organic vineyard of pinot noir and riesling.

It sits above the Cardona River with views up the Matukituki Valley.

It is the creation of Dunedin-raised Sharon and Aucklander Kevin Alderson.

Kevin's aim was to be out of dentistry in Auckland by the time he was 60, and teacher-painter Sharon wanted to fulfil a dream of a southern home.

They now have it in Zingara (house of Italian gypsy women).

They came up with the concept and built models before calling in Wanaka architect Sarah Scott to help build their dream three years ago.

The walls are thermopanel – 250-millimetre-thick with a Canterbury river shingle aggregate –which keeps the house warm in winter and cool in summer.

The river stones and copper roof pick up the changing colours of the day, making the house appear to retreat into the surrounding countryside.

Inside, the ceiling is macrocarpa and underfoot is a floating floor of dark Samoan hardwood.

The big windows are double- glazed with wooden shutters instead of curtains. Fires heat the banquet hall and upstairs lounge and library.

The two-storey- high atrium features a French studio grand piano sitting under a modern Italian chandlelier of glass tubes.

The week before we arrived the Nairobi Trio performed there.

The bedrooms are warmed by heated ceilings (really) and the bathrooms have heated Italian tiles.

The beds are big and sleep is easy between Egyptian cotton sheets and aromatherapy pillows.

The five guest bedrooms all have views of the mountains.

The colour scheme for every room in the house is taken off tribal rugs collected over the decades.

The walls are adorned with paintings by international and local artists, including Sharon who has a studio in a tower above the garage.

Kevin's folly is a turret accessed by a companionway ladder, pointing to his love of the sea. The keen yachtsmen is building himself a 35-footer in the vineyard barn.

There is a powerful telescope to browse the night sky but the air is so clear you can see the space station with the naked eye.

Enough of the house.

It is the Aldersons who make the place.

They are convivial, welcoming hosts proud of the region and keen to share with you their wine.

The vines were first harvested in 2005 with the limited edition pinot noir available by mail order but the fruity dry riesling reserved for guests.

The gourmet breakfasts were superb and Sharon's dinners rival the best restaurants in town.

Her secret recipe for hot-smoked salmon is now served in New York.

Many of their visitors are wealthy American hunters or fishermen for whom they can provide everything from silver service to helicopters, but if you are thinking of a luxury escape check out the website – they do deals.

If you get a group together in the ski season a four-wheel-drive van is thrown in.

There is high-speed Internet, big-screen television, stacks of movies and an extremely well-stocked library if you don't want to go outside.

What: Cardrona Terrace Estate
Where: 84 Morris Rd, Wanaka, tel: 03 443 8020
Cost: Luxury lodge with five rooms $495-$895 double a night, including breakfast
Website: www.cardronaterrace.com .

- © Fairfax NZ News