Origins of the Lodge

The Wilderness Lodges are a wholly New Zealand family owned and operated tourism venture working to protect nature.

The McSweeney Family who own the lodge can trace their New Zealand farming ancestry back to 1860.

The Lodge was designed by West Coast Wilderness Architect Gary Hopkinson to fit into a natural forest clearing. It was built in 1996 and it features wood, concrete and corrogated iron designed to blend in with the surroundings.

Having started (and still owning) the Wilderness Lodge Lake Moeraki in 1989, husband and wife team Anne Saunders and Gerry McSweeney now live at Arthur's Pass. They still retain a close relationship with their Lodge at Lake Moeraki.  They are both passionate about conservation and Gerry remains active in various campaigns around New Zealand.

Gerry was National President of Forest and Bird from 2001-2005 and has served on the Society's National Executive.  In the late 1980's he was honoured to receive a Distinguished Life Membership from the Society and in 2011 became a Forest and Bird Conservation Ambassador.

He also serves on the New Zealand Conservation Authority and has been a member of the Nature Heritage Fund since its inception in 1990. The goal of this Fund has been to work towards securing  a full range of representative eco-systems that occur on private land and add them to the public Conservation estate. Along with the rest of the Fund, Gerry has been working towards the extensions of the protected areas of the nearby Castle Hill, Kura Tawhiti sites, the Ashburton Lakes and many other areas in New Zealand. 

Wilderness Lodge Arthur's Pass remains a working sheep farm and we are proud that it has been possible to both protect nature and run a successful merino wool farming programme.

Our farm management programme involves building soil fertility,establishing high quality pastures and breeding a quality flock of Merino sheep with our superfine wool exported to Italian fashion houses. We are now breeding our own sheep for their prime meat which we serve in our restaurant.

David McLeod owned this sheep station from 1930 to 1978 and made this station and the South Island high country famous in his series of delightful high country books that you will find in our library.

Through our own conservation programme and in partnership with the Department of Conservation we are working to protect the special plants, forests and wildlife found on our high country farm and surrounding lands.

For 10 years now we have been fostering rare mistletoes, bellbirds, parakeets and kea in the forest around the Lodge. We have discovered and protected endangered plants in thorn forest near the Lodge.

On some of our longer trips you can help protect a native Dragon's Tooth shrubland and join in pulling out the invasive North American Lodgepole pine trees.