We had a lovely stay at Marie and Geoff's lakeside house. The apartment is right on the lake and has double doors onto a deck with an awesome view. The place is well kitted out including a BBQ.
There's a bit of road noise (they're right on SH33 which is very convenient) but you don't notice it very much and can't hear it on the deck at all. The location is very convenient for Rotorua activities (and Okere falls is really close by), all without the eggy smell, but you'd need to have a car to get around really.
Lovely hosts - they even have us honey from their on site beehives (don't worry, they're a long way from the house) and allowed us to just pick salad from their veggie patch. They also have a very friendly dog called Max (he has his own garden so don't worry if you're scared of dogs!)
A lovely stay all in all.