Yearning to get away from it all without sacrificing creature comforts? These five remote retreats should do the trick. Magnificently secluded but well worth the schlep, they’re as far from the madding crowds as you’ll ever want to get

MINARET STATION
South Island, New Zealand

The helicopter flight to this backcountry outpost in the Southern Alps takes you over the deep-blue waters of Lake Wanaka, across tussock grasslands and forests of beech, and up to the head of a glacier-carved valley where New Zealand’s only luxury tented lodge sits above a braided alpine stream. Accessible only by chopper, this is quintessential South Island high country—rugged, hushed, elemental. The lodge, established by the Wallis brothers in 2011 on the highest reaches of their family’s 26,000-hectare sheep and deer station, is an escapist’s dream: there are only four tented suites arranged around a central restaurant and library, all with sheepskin carpets, under-floor heating, and hot tubs on their terraces. When not soaking up the Tolkienesque splendor of the setting, guests can hike, tour the farm, picnic on mountaintops, or hop back in the helicopter for fly-fishing outings or way-off-piste skiing, depending on the season. Whatever time of year you visit, a vast, starry night sky beckons contemplation.

64-3/443-5860; minaretstation.com; Suites from US$1,560, full-board