“Lovely pub, poor service”
Reviewed January 7, 2013 NEW
Been to the Cardrona Hotel several times, as love having a drink in their outdoors area. On Sunday went there with friends and after drinking outside, we moved to the restaurant area for dinner. Our table was shocked when my request to a waitress for a drink with dinner was met with a request for me to go up and queue at the bar to order it. I’ve never known a venue to provide table service for food, not drink.
end

another review says

“Not what we expected”
Reviewed January 7, 2013 NEW via mobile
We booked Cardrona for 2 nights over New Years. We were quite disappointed with the hotel considering we paid $150 per night.
The room contained a queen sized bed and a cupboard with a CRT tv and kitchen supplies.
The bathroom was small but adequate, however missing a hair dryer. The tiled shower was low pressure, fluctuated in temperature, and lacked a door so flooded the bathroom.
The room was missing some essential elements such as a table, iron and ironing board.
The service was ok however it wasn’t clear where we should check in and out, staff offered us the wrong room and didn’t offer to change it. The spa also wasn’t working. Stayed January 2013
end of review

It is well worth remembering that the Cardrona staff come from Wanaka, and Wanaka is as redneck as Peter Quixote,
so is Queenstown if it comes to that.

[DPF: Every customer has access to the Internet and Trip Advisor. I hope her boss does read it, so they can improve their customer service.]

Terra Sancta looks to be the new identity for one of Bannockburn’s original vineyards, Olsens. No mention of this heritage on their website.

It’s easy for the palate to get jaded. I didn’t enjoy much at Peregrine but that was in the worst of Sunday’s afternoon Central heat. Also in Gibbston the next day we started at Waitiri Creek and it was much better, and they do a very good pizza. Much more relaxed setting than Peregrine (garden surrounding a relocated church).

And yesterday we went to Northburn, very close to my old home territory. Probably the best setting for a vineyard in Central. Started with a wine tasting, some were nice enough but hard to justify the premium prices. But then we sat down for an excellent lunch and some of the same wines (pinot noir) tasted much nicer with food.

The problem with wine tasting lined up at a counter is you can be over critical and don’t have the ambience that can often make a drinking experience.

A special mention at Northburn for their Sandy King’s Sauvignon Blanc. It was very palatable (the first wine tasted so that helps). But it had a special historical irony, when I was a kid the local swimming hole on the Clutha was Sandy King’s Island just north of Northburn (now under Lake Dunstan) – and in those days wine was unheard of, it was always just one brew, flagons of Speights.

There’s a huge contrast between now and then, both beverages and what we ate. I grew up on chops and roast mutton. Yesterday I had sheep for lunch but the description was a lot different.

One of my favourite childhood pastimes was gorging on cherries, all the old trees at Lowburn are gone now (replanted in vines), so our reliable source now is McFarlane’s at Ripponvale. And great (fresh tree ripened) peaches from the only remaining old family orchard – Webbs, just north of the Queenstown/Wanaka intersection) at Cromwell.

My old home territory has changed radically, especially since childhood, but substantially in the last twenty years, first with the flooding of Lowburn (Northburn used to be a part of Lowburn, now it’s across the lake). And now the proliferation of vineyards has further transformed the whole area.

Meat and two veg and arguing over DB versus Speights has become fine dining with a myriad of choice of ales and wines.

New Zealand lifestyles have changed a huge amount in my lifetime, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the Cromwell area.