We arrived in the dark after a long, rainy drive from Auckland, and as advised, we awoke to a gorgeous sunlit view in the morning. The place is extremely well described, which is why I said it was only a bit better than expected, as I felt we were already very well informed. As others have said, the photos and descriptions don't really do justice to the full experience. We were a party of 4 - 2 adults, adult son and girlfriend and we all had a splendid time! We all wish we had booked for longer than 3 nights. We drove up to Cathedral cove and Hot water beach which are both well worth a visit, and ate locally at Manaia which does great pizzas. The little local walkways down to the marina are worth exploring. We really enjoyed staying here, the hosts Jo and Andrew were very helpful and got back to us quickly with any questions we had. We felt we knew everything we needed to before arrival.