Reviews

Oct 8 2022

For the third year running, Owen River Lodge is a winner in Condé Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Awards. This is an award that we definitely can’t win ourselves. Your votes win it for us. So thank you, thank you, thank you for each of those years you’ve voted for us. For your loyalty and support. We’ll keep working our hardest to give you the very best luxury fly fishing experience that we can, here in beautiful New Zealand.

Oct 1 2022

The publishers of The Fly Fisherman have produced a stunning travel journal titled “Destinations”. April Vokey has written an article giving some background of our owner Felix Borenstein and some context of his life running Owen River Lodge

Download PDF

Aug 5 2022

It’s awards season! Last Wednesday we bagged one that’s very close to our hearts: Best Environmental/Sustainable Business at the Hospitality New Zealand 2022 Awards for Excellence.

We keep saying we jumped through all the hoops for B Corp Certification and Climate Positive accreditation because it’s the right thing to do—and we mean it. But damn, it feels good to have the industry recognise these achievements as well!

As always, thanks to our very special ORL family. This win is yours. And thanks also to our very special guests, who inspire us to be better and to do right.

May 26 2022

Leading New Zealand women’s magazine Woman published an article about the latest Casting for Recovery retreat held in April 2022

Woman : June 2022

Mar 30 2022

After a two year holiday hiatus, escaping to Owen River Lodge was simply brilliant! Felix, Kylie, Ryan and Jo looked after us so well and treated us like friends rather than guests.

The food was exquisite and beautifully presented - barista coffee in the morning was a god send and dining each night with Felix and Kylie was a delight and a laugh. I am a reasonably proficient fly fisher and my wife a novice and Chris our guide was able to meet both our needs and we both caught fish. I was also lucky enough to have a real back country fishing experience with Chris and it was simply brilliant.

We can highly recommend a stay and fish at Owen River Lodge to relax, enjoy great food and wine, and get out on a river fishing for big brown trout! We hope to get back soon.

Wayne & Cheryl: Cambridge, New Zealand : TripAdvisor

Mar 21 2022

Owen River Lodge is the world’s first B Corp-certified fishing lodge!

Owen River Lodge is the first accommodation provider in New Zealand and the first fishing lodge in the world—to be recognised as a Certified B Corporation, or B Corp.

For more info, check out our blog post explaining this significant mile stone !

Mar 21 2022

Felix, Kylie, Ryan and Chris did a fantastic job looking after us. Lodge is in a perfect spot, great accommodation, food to die for and excellent fishing with Chris.

Highly recommended to those who are expert or, like us, beginner fly fishers for brown trout. Picturesque scenery and nice people.

Stu: Auckland New Zealand: TripAdvisor

Mar 8 2022

Its International Women’s day and the New Zealand Herald have featured 4 woman in tourism; featuring our very own Kylie Sergeant

New Zealand Herald : 8 March 2022

Jan 15 2022

New Zealand’s TVONE visited Owen River Lodge to discuss the increase in women taking up fly fishing

You can watch the story here : Women taking up fly fishing

Jessica Roden, 1News Reporter

Dec 21 2021

Owen River was a welcome break from Covid at the end of 2021.

My previous experience’ on the water’, was three days, so l was looking forward to fishing in the Upper South Island.
Felix is a relaxed host with a good sense of humour. Kylie has a calm demeanor and her previous experience as a teacher showed, during a casting lesson on the day we arrived.

We enjoyed drinks and nibbles at the bar, then Chef Ryan cooked up beautiful evening meals. Using the Lodge’s equipment made things easy. Felix has quality Fly Fishing gear, that was clean and well maintained.

Paul was my Guide for both days. His 32 years experience showed. We hooked 13 fish and landed 8 on the first day. The browns were more illusive the second day, but managed to land a couple good sized, after losing a few.
I appreciated Paul’s systematic approach to catching fish. His techniques worked, the results above can be attributed to him.

The best take out from the stay was that I left a better Fly Fisherman than when I arrived. The scenery superb and fun was had. We loved falling asleep to and waking up to the sound of Owen River.
One of Life’s great experiences.

Peter & Leanne : Auckland New Zealand: TripAdvisor

Dec 9 2021

The New Zealand Herald has featured Owen River Lodge and our guided fishing adventures in their weekly travel magazine

Nov 23 2021

We had the pleasure to attend the first “learn to fly fish” weekend at Owen River Lodge - what a brilliant thing to do. Kylie is a qualified fly casting instructor and has the patience of a saint!

Her skills will have you catching trout in no time - I can attest to that; I was an absolute beginner and I landed a nice 5 pounder!! Felix and Kylie are wonderful hosts and the accommodation, food and outdoor environment are top notch and suited us extremely well. From the moment we arrived until we left, we were so well taken care of, we barely had to think for ourselves!

We were teamed up with Adam who showed us some amazing fishing spots, was generous with his knowledge and provided us with lifelong tips and tricks. This is definitely an experience that we intend to repeat.

Joanna & Sam : Hastings New Zealand : TripAdvisor

Oct 27 2021

Wow what an experience after 50 years of dreaming about it I finally got to experience a luxury fishing lodge and was not disappointed.

Felix and Kylie make fantastic hosts relaxed but attentive, Ryan the chef made such amazing meals over all four days and Stefano my guide with skill and MUCH PATIENCE put me onto multiple fish on multiple rivers over three days of fishing and I managed to catch 1 rainbow and two brown trout the smallest being 4.5 lb. These are the first fish I have ever caught fly fishing in my life.

I’m definitely going back.

Nicky: Golden Bay NZ : Google Review

Oct 19 2021

World Travel Awards serves to acknowledge, reward and celebrate excellence across all sectors of the global travel and tourism industry.

Owen River lodge was voted by our guests and the travel industry as New Zealand’s leading lodge

World Travel Awards 2021

Oct 6 2021

For the second year running, Owen River Lodge is a winner in the Australia, New Zealand & South Pacific resort category—one of only two New Zealand luxury resorts to make the cut

Condé Nast Traveler’s 2021 Readers’ Choice Awards

Awards & acknowledgements

Owen River Lodge NZ: “Fly fishing at its very best”

Ph: +64 3 523 9075 Address: Owen Valley East Road, Murchison, Nelson, South Island, New Zealand

Email: fish@elevenangling.com