Mountain House with Egmont in the background
Mountain House with Egmont in the background
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Mountain House Hotel in the Taranaki National Park - January 1999
The next few days were a complete contrast as we were staying in a hotel - in fact it was the only time during the holiday that we were in a Hotel or Motel. This was Mountain House, one the few hotels in the Taranaki (Egmont) National Park, which is at the end of one of the only three access roads into the park. We have been there before - it is small but serves some of the best food we know in New Zealand. The rooms at Mountain House are simple but adequate and the price is moderate at circa $90 a night for a double room. The owners have run hotels in the area for twenty years, Keith is local and Berta came from Switzerland and they take great pride in the service they provide. Keith is also an artist and there are many of his pictures on the walls. The set up is very much a family affair and one very much feels a guest in their home - the lounge has their photo albums on the tables and their scrap books going back twenty years.
The food is out of this world with a mixture of local specialities and Swiss dishes. We booked for 2 days but after the first meal promptly negotiated a third day. We had Crumbed Sweetbreads in a Espaniole sauce and Whitebait as starters the first evening. Whitebait is a local spaciality and is very small, almost translucent fish and it was served in what is described as a fritter but one made so the Whitebait were on a base with more egg of the white and topped with more of the yoke. We followed with Gitzi Ragout (Goat) with home made Spaetzli. The starters were both so nice we reversed the next evening but then followed with NZ Pheasant in Brandy Sauce and a Roast Honey Ginger Duck. The final evening we had a memorable house spaciality of creamed paua, a local shellfish and scallops with parmesan. We followed with an enormous T bone steak as beef is still on the bone and a Lamb Shank. We did not always get to sweets but those we tried included a Swiss apple pie (covered in Meringue), an excellent Swiss Apple Streudel (repeated to check) and probably the best cheesecake I have ever had. They could sell lots of recipe books very easily.
The wine list is almost entirely NZ and understates the wines - the Nobilo Chardonnay was a reserve and superb and the Brajkovich Merlot was a signature series. There were many of our favourites on the list. The last evening Keith let on he had a special list as well which included wines such as Cloudy Bay Sauvignon and Montana Reserve Merlot he recommended highly.
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