About Us

Smoke Lake offers overnight lodging, accommodation and campground on our spacious site in the heart of Rotorua. Think the traditional motel or campground with all the amenities and perks of staying in a hotel where you can bathe, dine and enjoy a glass of wine. Smoke Lake brings boutique -style amenities, down to earth lodgings and welcoming hospitality to create a simple escape for you.

The real history of  Smoke Lake Lodge began in 1986.

A family passionate about hospitality and simple escapes. 
Written by Treen Mcleay 1 November, 2024. 

I am Treen Mcleay and this is our story: 

I was 15 when the business opened and it has been part of my life since then. But my introduction to hosting started when I was eight years old.
Little did I know that 40 something years later I would be here jotting notes.
It has been decades since so you might want to get a coffee or a wine and sit down and enjoy. 

I grew up on a sheep and beef farm, on the other side of Mt Ngongotaha - literally 20 minutes from the business.

In my childhood we always had people at home, I think it was a part of who we were as New Zealanders. Mum had constant food rolling for everyone, and most of it came from the farm.  It is amazing how she managed as this was before a microwave oven, and everything prepared from scratch. 

When I was about 8 years old Mum and Dad started doing farm tours and lunch for Japanese groups and we would cater for 65 people out of the farm kitchen. Mum is an amazing cook, but heck that was brave! They were so popular they wanted them to come 7 days a week but Mum and Dad decided they had a farm to run as well.  

We used to joke and call our home the “McLeay Hotel” as we always had people coming and going. 

Dad loved to pick up hitchhikers and in the mid eighties there was nowhere for them to stay in Rotorua, So they bought the land and built New Zealand's first backpackers in 1986. It was originally Thermal Lodge then became Kiwipaka.