Exclusively New Zealand

Through the usual round about means I received a link to Minaret Station ("Tented Luxury in the Remote New Zealand Wilderness"*), an exclusive resort, accessible only by helicopter in New Zealand.  A web search led me to a video on Exclusively New Zealand.  The video opens with a didgeridoo and a drum over an image of the sun setting over the mountains.

The effect may be different south of the equator, but with live people appearing only half way through I felt I was being prepped for a terror-in-paradise/vacationing-with-psychopathic-killers/dormant-nameless-horror-awakes video.  Am I reading too much into this?

The shot below is typical of scenes preceding the attack on unsuspecting outsiders.  The heads of the attackers would com in from the lower  right of the screen.

The photos on the Minaret Station web site were taken by Fredrik Larsson.  He described of how he took the photos.  (Behind the scenes from the Minaret shoot in February of this year.)  There is a great shot of the Minaret Station in the snow - something not found on the resort's web site.

What struck me in looking at the photos was how unsuitable I am for a place like that.  (Yes, it's all about me.)  It's the nature of advertising to show off the subject.  Rooms should appear as large as possible.  Everything should sparkle or, if not sparkling (sparkling linen?) be as comfortable and luxurious as possible.  (I see your 350 thread count and raise you 50.)  

Maybe the target market doesn't want to see other people in room they themselves expect to occupy.  This is far different than clothing.   (Wow!   I'd look really great in that bathing suit.  I expect that there is some woman out there - there's got to be one - who'll believe that some dress will slim their thighs enough to make the man of their dreams fall in love with them.  Delusion does not require drugs.)   (Note to self: consider investigating correlations between thrift store shoppers and those who shop at budget stores. )

The images shown below prompted this post.  No books on the wall?  Why would I want to be there.  But look at the luxury!  Why two sinks?  Do people like to wash up side by side?  Is it a competition thing? I realize that commercial photography needs to make the subject appealing.  it's clear I'm not in the target audience.

A bathroom the size of a squash court certainly indicates luxury, but how many steps do you want to take from the toilet to the sink?  Why two sinks?  Do couples like to wash together?  Is sharing the same sink icky?  Is it a keeping up with the Jones thing? 

(Is this another manifestation of Thorstein Veblen's conspicuous consumption - a term I haven't heard in a good long while.  In talking to a friend about building a house, she said she'd definitely want her own bathroom so she wouldn't have to share it with her boys.  I was taken aback: bathrooms in my universe serve only a few limited purposes: 1) a sacred place to read the NY Times and 2) washing and brushing, 3) storing medicine, and 4) relieving oneself.  Maybe she was thinking about resale value while I was thinking of living in a place until I died.  Wasn't the problem with girls hogging a bathroom and getting boys into them to get washed?)

Must be my advancing age. My ideal vacation is becoming a nap in some comfortable spot where birds won't poop on my head and sap won't ruin my clothes or my book. Jeez  I'm no fun.

*That's the way I remember it.  What is actually on the site is a night time photograph captioned  "Luxury Tented Lodge in the Remote New Zealand Wilderness".