I've just had four nights up the line in an Eketahuna cottage rental. It's an hour and a half away from Wellington, 25 minutes past Masterton, 1 km off Highway No 2.
Don't laugh. I know that everybody in NZ thinks of Eketahuna as, like, Timbuktoo or The back of Beyond, and folk smirk when Eketahuna is mentioned. But I truly love The Cottage where I stay. It's a couple of minutes drive from Mt Bruce Wildlife Sanctuary where if you're lucky you can see one of their two white kiwis, the only ones in the world. I saw one and it looks like a couple of fluffy snowballs with spindly legs and a beak.
The Cottage is one bedroom - I'll show you interior photos some other time. There is a swimming hole just in front of The Cottage and nothing surrounding the place but sheep/fields/trees/birds singing/river babbling. Not one house to be seen. Take note though, that it can get pretty windy.
I swam half a dozen times. On Wednesday, I swam three times in one day. Sheer bliss. The Cottage details are on the Baches & Holiday Homes to Rent website, #573.
that's not a house to the left, it's a sort of sheep barn.
looking out of the side window
taken from the verandah looking down to river
