All white on the night

NEW FOR OLD: Taupo's historic hilltop hotel has reopened after a high-gloss Hilton makeover.

"We coule get in some hos and shoot a gangsta hip-hop video," suggests my wide-eyed husband as we take in the size of our suite at the Hilton Lake Taupo.

The cavernous living area encompasses a full kitchen (marble benchtop), a dining table as big as our living room back home and a huge balcony with a heart-stopping view of the lake and mountains.

The bathroom has twin basins, walk- in shower, a bath big enough for two, piles of fluffy white towels and bushels of upmarket Crabtree & Evelyn toiletries.

A bed about as big as a rugby field dominates the bedroom, but is nearly dwarfed by the largest flat-screen TV I've ever seen.

We are among the first guests to stay at Taupo's first international five-star hotel, which opened this month.

Between the thermally heated swimming pool, outdoor spa, gym, sauna, steam room (in which we cook ourselves limp) and the floodlit tennis courts, one could spend an entire holiday here without leaving the hotel.

We manage to stroll a couple of hundred metres to the old Victorian building to eat at Bistro Lago.

Some ancient wooden skis and fishing tackle are hung decoratively on the walls as a nod to the building's unique history, but the decor is superimposed with the signature style of chef/restaurateur Simon Gault's other enterprises, which include Shed 5 and Pravda in Wellington, and Auckland's Euro and Pasha.

Two men at a window table are texting on their mobiles, oblivious to the majestic view of mountain and lake.

Conversation is halting at our table too, but only because our mouths are fully occupied by tomato tartare with buffalo mozzarella and olive and almond truffle paste, tempura with prawns doused in spicy tomato aioli, followed by manuka smoked Akaroa salmon with nicoise salad and pork belly with anchovy rillette and forest mushroom jus, complemented by truffle mashed potatoes and pear and rocket salad followed by butterscotch pudding.

Stuffed with food and wine, we teeter along the path by the pool to the lift that takes us directly to our front door. No lengthy corridors to negotiate here.

Those who find the walk too taxing can avail themselves of the hotel golf cart, no doubt designed with exercise- shy big spenders in mind.

About 70 percent of guests at Hilton Hotels are members of the Hilton loyalty club, for whom the five-star hotel chain is their "home away from home".

Here's why: it's an obsessive-compulsive's dream holiday.

Hilton Hotels have mandatory worldwide standards for everything, from the dimensions of rooms to TVs, right down to the brand of alarm clock used.

During my brief stint as a Hilton chambermaid in the south of France some years ago, I was astonished at the attention to detail.

Perhaps guests would demand their money back if they failed to find four coat-hangers spaced evenly at each end of the wardrobe rail, two laundry bags on the next shelf, and a sewing kit next to a pottle of shoe-polish, and in the bathroom teeny bottles of shampoo and conditioner and cleanser (with labels facing out) and a little pointy fold in the loo paper.

This is my first experience on the other side of the five-star experience and for a pair of habitual backpackers, it's disconcerting to return to the suite and find magic pixies have erased all evidence we have been there.

I can't help imagine marriage would be one long honeymoon if there was a third party always on hand to scrub the bath.

The writer stayed courtesy of Hilton Lake Taupo.

What: Hilton Lake Taupo. Where: 80-100 Napier-Taupo  Highway. Cost: From $180 a night  (special deal) for a poolside terrace  room to $1700 for the presidential  suite, which sleeps eight.

- © Fairfax NZ News