The Rees takes its name from William Gilbert Rees, the explorer who reached Lake Wakatipu in 1860 and is remembered as the founder of Queenstown. The hotel carries his name and his tradition of southern hospitality on a hillside of native planting that runs down to its own beach and jetty, with the lake below and The Remarkables rising on the far shore.
The five Lakeside Residences sit closest to the water. Designed by award-winning architect Kerry Avery and finished to the same standard as the hotel, each is a house in its own right: two levels, three bedrooms that each have their own bathroom, a lounge with a fireplace for alpine evenings, a fully equipped kitchen with a chef on request, and two terraces facing the lake, the lower one with a hot tub. A secure double garage sits beneath.
Life in a Residence runs on the hotel’s service. Every room, apartment and Residence is serviced daily, there is turndown in the evening, and the concierge books everything from heli-skiing to a table at True South. The Rees Residence, one of the five, adds a 24-hour personal travel curator, a full cooked breakfast each morning, fresh flowers and kayaks for the lake.
Up the hill the hotel keeps a calm, clubbable rhythm: a foyer and lounge under vaulted timber, a library of rare books and a gallery of original paintings, the Bordeau Wine Lounge with its cellar of fine Bordeaux, and a 24-hour gym. More than twenty languages are spoken among the team, a complimentary shuttle reaches town in three minutes, and water taxis come and go from the private jetty.
