The Magic of the Great Glenorchy Alpine Base Camp

It turns out that this team’s happiness is a product of your happiness. If you’re having fun, they are too.

Dinner at The Great Glenorchy Alpine Base Camp’s popular wood-fired restaurant ‘Base Camp Kitchen’ is a deliciously different experience, with each element cooked simply and beautifully over wood fire.

Liz runs the kitchen, which involves her and her team working with authentic cast iron cookware over a hand-built NZ-made wood-fired oven—or the centrepiece of the main courtyard, a beast of a BBQ constructed from locally salvaged riveted water pipes.

Where Dinner is a Theatrical Experience

“….the magic is to make sure that the space itself feels good. I think that when you walk into our main restaurant, for me, I like the lighting to be warm with a good use of candles. It must be a sensory delight, not just the lighting but also the sounds, smells, textures and, of course, tastes. The artists we play and the volume level we choose are important. The smell of the cooking fires, the mouthwatering smells, the personal greeting when you arrive, the cosiness of the space, the warmth and the ‘heartwarmingness’. The carefully placed glimpse through to the courtyard cooking fires offers a little bit of suspense too. There’s quite a bit going on, and it’s all important. Don’t you think going out for dinner should be at least a little bit theatrical? We do…” says the lovely Liz, the incredible fire-cook magician.

Dinner itself is shared on a long-preset table for the grownups, family style. The kids are in booths nearby for their own shared dining experience before they head out to the courtyard for marshmallow roasting—all so the parents can mingle with the other guests. More like a dinner party than a restaurant.

The Art of a Warm Welcome

“...when our guests arrive, I greet them personally as soon as they enter the restaurant. I like to give them a moment to take our space in with some easy chat. I introduce them to Liz and Doug, show them what’s going on with dinner preparations and then take them to the courtyard fires to meet the other guests over a drink before they’re all seated together on our long shared table for dinner. I love feeling their pre-dinner drinks and social energy building, and it always carries to the dinner table. I think that’s one of the special parts of what we do. Watching our guests when we remove the cast iron pot lids when they’re seated is another real treat for me. Love the suspense...” says a smiling Grace, the warm, welcoming and natural hostess.

Fire, Food and Adventure

The Great Glenorchy Alpine Base Camp offers private guided adventure experiences in the stunning UNESCO South West New Zealand World Heritage Area, and its popular signature wood-fired restaurant, Base Camp Kitchen, provides the fire-food experience, including a fire-cook host on each private glamping adventure. 

“...while it was definitely a logistical challenge, the entire team on the private guided and hosted adventure glamping side of the business really wanted to add a fire-cook host from Base Camp Kitchen to our offering. It’s an ancient, romantic, timeless ‘fire thing’. Working a fire for cooking and then preparing food with it. It is an important part of the invaluable wild connection that sits at the centre of all that we do. It’s an amazing experience and we just had to find a way to make it happen, and we have, because that’s what we do…” says Christian with a grin, the adventure operations lead. 

There are fire-cooking courses in the wings, and we know you will love the Base Camp Kitchen dinner experience — a must for anyone planning a visit to the Queenstown area all year round. Bookings are essential.

To learn more about what The Great Glenorchy Alpine Base Camp has to offer, visit thegreatglenorchyalpinebasecamp.co.nz