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Your Hosts - Gary & Shirley Akers

The creation of Lake Taupo Lodge began 30 years ago when Gary and Shirley purchased 10 acres of wild bush in Acacia Bay overlooking Lake Taupo.

Both are keen gardeners and Gary has a particular love of wildlife so the native bush formed the perfect haven for his love of birds. After subdividing to ensure seclusion and privacy they retained the 3 and 1/2 acre lodge site for themselves.

During extensive world travel, Chicago in particular, Gary was impressed with the harmonious and geometric style of Frank Lloyd Wright and was inspired to build in a similar style, embracing the organic and unique features of the natural landscape.

A well known NZ architect, Gary Dennison, was employed to design their new home, which subsequently won a top New Zealand architectural award.

Gary and Shirley were involved in the fashion industry; they owned and managed their own busy leading fashion label "Formula Fashions" for 30 years, in NZ and Australia. The high life of entertaining required a large venue which influenced the design of their new home, hence the easy flowing spacious rooms and accommodation - all perfect for the future concept of turning this lovely home into a beautiful lodge. In 1996 Gary and Shirley took the plunge and turned their three storied 13,000 foot home into what is now Lake Taupo Lodge, and so began the journey.


Wright avoided anything that might be called a personal style. Through all his designs, he was guided by principles that he termed organic architecture. By this he meant that every building should relate harmoniously to its natural surroundings and that a building should not be a static, boxlike enclosure but a dynamic structure, with open, flowing interior spaces. To achieve this organic design, he used geometric units, or modules, that generated a grid. The first modules were squares, but Wright later used diamonds, hexagons, and other geometric shapes, upon which he laid a free-flowing floor plan. Another device Wright favoured was the cantilever-a long projection (often a balcony) that was supported at only one end. The grid and the cantilever freed Wright's designs from being merely boxes with openings cut into them.

Fallingwater and the Guggenheim museum are two classic examples of Frank Lloyd Wright's work.

Wright has said that he could hear the waterfall in the design of Fallingwater. Decades later, millions have been able to hear the waterfall through his awe-inspiring design. As the world continues to grow farther away from nature, Fallingwater has become even more of a marvel to man because of its simple principle: man and nature should be able to coexist in harmony.
