New Zealand's best-kept dining secrets Kauri Cliffs Resort in New Zealand's far north. The cosy interior of Matakauri Lodge in Queenstown. SOME of the best restaurants I've been to in the past few years are not quite restaurants, at least not in the conventional sense. Yes, they have impressive dining rooms. Highly capable staff. Talented, dedicated, produce-loving chefs. Menus that show a conversance with modern dining trends as well as that something extra, the spark of individuality that makes reading them a salivating pleasure. And food and wine that makes you stop and say, hell, wish we could come here more often. But we probably won't, because they cost upwards of $NZ700 a night ... I am talking about the restaurants in New Zealand's luxury lodges. Granted, they are closed to all but in-house guests (dinner is included in the tariff); this doesn't make them any less valid. For the global food tourist - and don't we all fancy ourselves as such, even if our trips to Noma and 12-seat sushi temples in Tokyo are taken only in the future tense - cost is subsidiary to the experience, so let's not quibble about the price of entry. A great restaurant is a great restaurant is a great restaurant, not that you would have much idea of what to expect of lodge dining from reading the reviews on TripAdvisor. Whare Kea. Kauri Cliffs. Matakauri. Australia is catching up in the luxury lodge game - Saffire, Southern Ocean Lodge, Wolgan Valley - but New Zealand did it first, and still sets the pace (that Middle-Earth landscape and outsized lakes do give it an unfair advantage, even before we weigh in on the NZ v Oz pinot noir debate). We stayed two nights each at three of the most lauded Relais & Chateaux properties. Kauri Cliffs in Northland, near the top of the north island, and Matakauri in Queenstown, in the alpine south, are owned by US billionaire Julian Robertson (he also has Cape Kidnappers in Hawke's Bay); Whare Kea in Wanaka, near Queenstown, is owned by the Myer family in Melbourne. Their restaurants have much in common - if common is the right word for such a high-end experience. The food at all three properties was not just great "for a lodge." It was simply great, prepared by chefs with luminous CVs, and on par with some of Australia's most highly regarded restaurants - albeit more Jacques Reymond or Guillaume Brahimi than Porteno or Casa Ciuccio. Here's a look at three of New Zealand's best-kept dining secrets. PERCHED high above Matauri Bay in New Zealand's subtropical far north, Kauri is a lodge of big horizons, inside as well as out. Acres of NZ hardwood floors, hunting-lodge chandeliers and a blazing log fire all give the classic dining room a sense of immensity even before you settle into a broad upholstered chair at a family-sized table for two. There are three menus - grill, a la carte and degustation - to peruse while you take your pick of house-made breads. Sixty per cent of guests go for the grill, a superb showcase of local gems such as Northland lamb, grass-fed ribeye and heirloom beefsteak tomatoes, but it would be a shame to miss out on the greater creativity of the main game. We loved an unlikely-sounding starter of "lentils, green beans, pecans, avocado, pomegranate molasses vinaigrette": it takes serious skill in the kitchen to make a pulse this posh, while not overwhelming it with bossy pomegranate. Kauri's modest, unassuming executive chef Barry Frith likes Asian flavours, too, doing a convincing red curry sauce for Atlantic scallops (the local version is used when in season) and a sympathetic soy-mustard-sake dressing for the obligatory marinated kingfish. Wines? Unusually, there is better value at the cheaper end here. Steer clear of some of the bigger names from France, stick to NZ, consult charming Argentinian sommelier Valeria Weihmuller, and you're drinking well. A nod to the rest of the staff, too, who mix the respect you'd expect in a place this exclusive with a quiet sense of humour. They need it to deal with some of their guests' idiosyncrasies: at Kauri, I overheard an American golfing gent loudly insist on "very, very crispy bacon" at breakfast; at Matakauri, one recent request was for well-done poached egg white. At dinner. IN appearance more like a boutique hotel than a lodge, Matakauri counters its smaller size with the vastness of Lake Wakatipu and the mountains looming just beyond the dining room windows in the heart of Queenstown. Lodge food across all three properties tends to the lighter, more refined end of the dining spectrum, and Matakauri chef Jonathan Rogers' food is the most classical and restrained of the trio, but his locavore instincts and imaginative approach keep things on the right side of conservative. He has a way with fish, starting with terrific canapes of gratinated clam soaked in herb butter; tarakihi escabeche; and cured local salmon with guacamole and the crackle-snap of rice wafers. A starter of Eastherbrook Farms quail with parsnip, pea shoot and cauliflower jus was one of the best dishes of the trip, beautifully balanced and sauced and perfectly cooked, and the wild Fiordland venison, with a crunchy oat crust and a powerful sage jus, was not far behind. Only the flavours of an Asian diversion - brilliant roasted monkfish with a Thai-ish curry lime sauce - seemed too demure, perhaps a case of second-guessing the tastes of the typical customer. With the venison, we drank a spicy, savoury 2008 Harvest Man Syrah, a handmade, single-vineyard wine from Waiheke Island and one of several NZ labels on the list that are rarely seen in Oz. A 12-SEAT restaurant, a dramatic rural setting, a menu built around produce purpose-grown in a 0.6ha organic garden ... No, we're not on some remote foodie pilgrimage in Sweden or Japan, but in Wanaka, New Zealand, about an hour's drive north of Queenstown. With its reception line of roadside sheep, low-key interior and view of unspoiled lake and snow-topped mountains, Whare Kea feels much like a wealthy friend's private retreat, albeit one with superb staff and extraordinary food. Our third lodge, our third experience of a resort that doesn't suffer from captive-audience disease, that cynical attitude towards guests who don't have a choice about where to spend their dining dollars. Put him in a "public" restaurant and chef James Stapley would be a big name. Like Melbourne's Andrew McConnell, Stapley does modern, progressive and original, without being annoying. Everything on the plate adds up, nothing seems unnatural, and his liking for theatrics never threatens to overtake the food. He sends out a canape of a chicken liver parfait "cigar" in an ashtray with bread-and-butter "ash"; a Manuka and tea-smoked duck salad arrives under a little glass cloche filled with smoke. Stapley says part of the organic garden's purpose is to grow produce he wouldn't find easily in Wanaka. "We don't use things just because they're local," he says. They have to be better than anything else. As is very apparent in another knockout dish, of koura - local yabby - with pork skin, carrot, wood sorrel and corn, matched by Craig Somerville with a 2010 Kurow Village Cricklewood Pinot Gris. Who needs bungy jumping with thrills like these? Necia Wilden was a guest of Relais & Chateaux and flew to New Zealand courtesy of Air New Zealand. She recommends Air NZ's premium economy service, especially for parents of toddlers.