Woodlyn Park
spot cool stuff TRAVEL
Not content to play host to merely one of the world’s unusual hotels Woodlyn Park, on New Zealand’s North Island, has three!
The coolest might be The Plane Motel — two rooms inside an actual 1950’s Bristol Freighter. The room in the plane’s rear has an outdoor deck under the right wing but the front room includes the cockpit that’s been left surprisingly intact and is more plane-like inside. (Plane-like being a quality I’m sure you always look for in your hotel rooms).
The Hobbit Motel looks like Bilbo’s house did in The Lord Of The Rings from the outside, built into a hill and with round windows. Inside, though, there are no low ceilings or wood floors or fireplaces or magic rings that need throwing the fires of Mordor, leaving us a little disappointed.
The Train Motel is a single suite in a 1950’s rail car. It has a mini-kitchen and sleeps six between the double bed, two single beds and a pullout couch. For better and for worse the room includes little locomotive decor, though the arched ceiling is a constant reminder to guests that they are indeed in a rail car.
Whichever Woodlyn Park motel you select you’ll be staying in a gorgeous, green, sheep-filled setting close to the Waitomo caves. The prices are an outstanding value: NZ$130 per couple for the Train Motel, $185 for the Hobbit , $150 for the tail until of the Plane Motel and — our suggested room — $160 for the cockpit.
