The Gates of Paradise is a narrow rock portal in the sandstone cliffs that marks the point where the mountain road descends into the Malealea valley. Early travellers named it: the track through the gap opens onto a wide valley of grassland and sandstone formations, with the mountains rising steeply on all sides. The lodge's founders — who opened Malealea to visitors in the 1980s — found the name in the records of a 19th-century traveller who used the same road.
It's visible from the lodge and makes a natural goal for a short walk from the village. The best light is in the morning, when the rock face catches the early sun.