The Canadian lodge where planes take off from a frozen lake runway in winter

There's something magical about Lake Muncho. It's almost like the colourful ribbons of the northern lights have a supernatural power that reaches out and draws you in.

It's spellbinding. Addictive even.

Enveloped in the stillness of the remote Canadian wilderness on a frozen lake at night, the wait for the aurora borealis to break into a dance across the starry sky is worth a weary traveller sacrificing an early night for. Only the occasional passing of lights from freight trucks traversing the Alaska Highway, which snakes its way along the edge of the lake, breaks the darkness as the night sky teases. But the glow of green and pink arrives at last, reaching out from behind the silhouette of the jagged mountains of the Northern Rockies. But it's not just at night that the magic arrives.

By day, you might think you were somewhere in Switzerland. And the fact the owners of Northern Rockies Lodge and its lakeside chalets still speak with a strong Swiss accent - even though they have lived in Canada since 1979 - just adds to the momentary confusion.

The couple and their family are just as much a reason to add this place to any travel bucket list as the aurora light show itself. Their life story is just as captivating. It's a place where you may arrive as a stranger, but you will leave feeling part of what they call their Lake Muncho family.

Urs Schildknecht was already a pilot when he and wife Marianne met in Switzerland but he needed more flight hours to secure work. So the couple rented a small plane in Florida and flew around the US and Canada, clocking up flight hours. Along the way, they became enamoured by Canada - not just its people and freedoms but the vastness of its wide-open spaces. "In Switzerland, everything is crowded," Marianne says.

During the 1980s, they ran their own charter plane business in remote Fort Liard, in Canada's Northwest Territories, and it was only by chance they heard about the jade-coloured Lake Muncho - a place they fell in love with. By 1988 they had bought the original 1950s lakeside lodge and cabins.

But the couple had always dreamed of building their own lodge, and in 1995 they did just that. Its giant windows deliver sweeping views of the lake and bathe the dining area in sunshine. The view from the lodge's upstairs guest rooms is just as memorable. Over the years, the couple has added extra lakeside cabins, and now have plans to transform the site even more. An extension to the lodge, adding 15 more guest rooms, is on the cards. They also have plans for a pool, edgeless hot tub, gym and viewing platform to watch the northern lights. "We already have a lot of wellness draw just by being here," son Daniel says. "The idea is to make sure there are a few more creature comforts."

Among those natural wellness drawcards is the Liard Hot Springs just half an hour away. After a short walk through a winter wonderland, the rising steam against the backdrop of snow-covered forest beckons bathers to plunge into the warm waters. Back at the lodge, you can take a dip in the lakeside hot tub or warm up in the sauna.

While the family's Northern Rockies Adventures has been running summer and fishing tours at Lake Muncho for many years, in 2023 they added the aurora winter tours - which also include guided activities such as cross-country skiing, hiking through the snow to frozen waterfalls and abandoned historic cabins, ice-skating on the lake and snowmobiling across it.

The aurora tours are a treat for all the senses. It's not just the sight of the northern lights, or the feel of the hot springs on your skin, or the sound of water dripping from melting icicles hanging from the lodge's pitched roof. The tours also dish up a treat for your taste buds. Daniel trained as a chef in Switzerland and now adds his own touch of magic to savour. From native local produce to dishes inspired by his family's Swiss heritage, the menu includes four- to seven-course meals each night. Whether it is bison with local herbs and berries foraged from around the property, or indigenous-inspired bannock flatbread cooked on the open fire by the lake, the food is the cherry on top of an unforgettable four-day adventure. "There's always a wild component to it," Daniel says of his dishes. "It's really nice to ... have these tastes that will never really be commercialised."

With Daniel and his brother Michael both following in their father's footsteps to become pilots, guests have the chance to see Muncho Lake and the surrounding mountains and glaciers from the air, taking off in winter from the ice runway built on the lake. "Boundless untouched outdoors. It's a bit of a hidden gem," Daniel says. "The visitation in the Northern Rockies is a lot smaller than the other Rockies destinations in Canada."

Marianne describes their home as magical. There is no stress, no rush. Time really does seem to stand still. And there is something about Lake Muncho that keeps bringing people back. There are many repeat clients - one has returned 23 years in a row. "It grows on them," Marianne says. "They come back and they become part of the family." After his first visit four years ago, Barry, now the lodge's mini-van driver, went home, packed up his life and moved here. He has many stories to entertain guests on the three-hour drive between Lake Muncho and Fort Nelson where the charter plane out of Vancouver lands - like the time he raised a wolf which ended up on the cover of a Shania Twain album.

Each flight out of Vancouver brings nine guests on the exclusive tours. And while they could bring more, Daniel says they don't want it to become so big that 30 or more people are standing on the lake all trying to see the northern lights. Keeping it small means everyone gets special treatment. "It's a very personalised experience," Daniel says.

The writer was a guest of Destination British Columbia