Mana Lodge

Luxury Accommodation - Weddings - Corporate Events - Special Events

Built in 1948 on prime New Zealand farmland and once a highly esteemed horse stud, Mana Lodge is a large country home with an alluring appeal that holds a unique and important place in the history of the Hawkes Bay region.

Large portions of the land in this magical valley were carved up in 1931 and it was around this time that the much-admired, two storey, two bedroom English style gatehouse with its character gabled roof and rambling English garden was built. When the building site for the lodge itself was chosen, an extensive program planting large tracks of native and significant trees was undertaken, the grounds were landscaped into formal tiered terraces and redesigned to include one of the largest (and most inviting) private swimming pools in the country. These were the heady, decadent days of vibrant garden parties, lavish high teas and gentrified games of croquet on the lawn.

With superb rural vistas that compliment the exquisite 18ha estate, Mana Lodge was considered one of the finest gardens in the province. This most excellent garden structure had been painstakingly maintained and nurtured so that it may be enjoyed and admired still to this day.

Mana Lodge, named with a Maori word signifying prestige, authority and good fortune commands a sublime position in amongst the languid, green rolling hills of Hawke’s Bay on New Zealand’s sun kissed East Coast.

Sir Paul Holmes, New Zealand’s most pre-eminent radio and television broadcaster who grew up in Hawke’s Bay, acquired Mana Lodge in 2000 after falling in love with the property. He declared it ‘a lovely little farm with a charisma all of its own’. Although the property was attractive in its original condition Sir Paul set out to transform it on a massive scale. Over the next decade Sir Paul and his wife, Lady Holmes lovingly set about a major project of landscaping the exquisite grounds which included building a massive 40 metre pergola extending out from the Lodge conservatory into the gardens themselves. An olive grove of some 3,000 trees was planted of Tuscan varieties which produced a bounty of award winning ‘Mana Lodge’ signature olive oils. The amphitheater that was originally built to parade horses was opened up and a circular swimming pool was built in the original place of the old semi-circular pool that had been covered in. Buxus hedging, limestone paths, a vast lavender field, topiaries, manicured lawns, a sweeping driveway, swallow ponds, a meandering river, native blocks, and a glade with glittering fairy lights were all added to complete the dream.

Shortly before his death in February 2013, Sir Paul described Mana Lodge as ‘his treasure’.