Stayed a night at Mackenzie Suites Lake Tekapo when Grobbler and I decide to head down to Lake Tekapo during our recent trip to Christchurch. Booked it just a few days in advance and if you can’t be knackered reading the whole spiel and just want to know if you should stay here, then yes, you should stay here if you’re staying in Lake Tekapo.
There’s now quite a lot of accommodation options in Lake Tekapo and quite a few airbnb’s as well as private apartments. The Mackenzie Suites Lake Tekapo has just what appears to be a few rooms so you won’t have many people around you and there’s no breakfast or room service or any food available here so if you’re wanting that, better to stay at a hotel, something like Peppers Bluewater Resort, where you can enjoy typical hotel stuff, and be with hundreds of tourists.
The Mackenzie Suites Lake Tekapo is situated on a little hill that partially overlooks Lake Tekapo, you don’t get an unimpeded view but you can see the lake. You’re probably going to be driving a car if you’re in Tekapo so the fact that’s it about a 500m walk to the village is not a big deal. It’s in an excellent location, very quiet, no neighbours and I can’t think of any better to be in when staying in Lake Tekapo. of course, you could be in the village, but then you have to deal with the thousands of tourists that will also be staying or at least visiting here.
Messaged the owner a day before and he was excellent, it’s not like you’re going to get lost in lake Tekapo, but he gave instructions and everything was clear before arriving. The room at the Mackenzie Suites Lake Tekapo we stayed in was a one bedroom apartment. It’s not 5 star luxury but it’s about as good as you’re going to get in New Zealand and definitely not a single complaint about anything in the room. The living room is huge with table, gas fire and table, kitchenette with plates, knives and forks, toaster and basically everything you need.
The bedroom is also massive, we had one double and one single bed and had loads of room to put bags and suitcases. The bathroom is a bit fancy, nicely done and the shower is awesome. The bath tub is massive although we didn’t use it. The bed was comfortable and no complaints here.
The Mackenzie Suites Lake Tekapo gets something like a 9.7 rating on booking.com (as of August 2018) and for good reason, everything is near perfect and there’s absolutely nothing to complain about. Friendly owner, clean, nice and spacious rooms, good location, nice views, quiet area, you can’t really can’t find any negatives about the Mackenzie Suites Lake Tekapo.
If you want breakfast you can have a leisurely walk into the village which would take about 10 minutes or walk to any of the other hotels in Lake Tekapo. There’s some cafes that serve up breakfast for a reasonable price and quite a few restaurants and bakeries for lunch and dinner. The actual lake itself is about 15 minutes walk or just take the car down if it’s cold as it was when we were there.
There’s a couple of different rooms at Mackenzie Suites Lake Tekapo so check out booking.com for the options but because this isn’t a traditional hotel and has very limited rooms, this is going to be hard to book during peak season so better to book way in advance. There’s not a whole lot to do in Lake Tekapo so one or two nights here is fine, but if you wanted to stay longer, this would be the place to do that.
For more information about the Mackenzie Suites Lake Tekapo send us an email or ask us on Twitter.
