What a great spot to kick back and relax! Linda's place is on top of a cliff with a wide, steep path down to a nice sunny and shady beach. (Al tells me he's making the path a bit more manageable though it didn't cause me any problems). It's really quiet here - I heard only one motorbike on the road all the time I was here and that might have been Al;s. Both Al and Linda went out of their way to make my stay really comfortable and relaxing and even relaxed the "no kids" rule when nobody else was staying in the flat downstairs.
There are two apartments here - I had the upstairs one which I suspect is a little smaller. The view from both is spectacular 24 hours a day - from the living room, from the queen bed and from the deck. You can move around the two decks to get in or out of the sun or the breeze. The downstairs apartment has slightly more comfortable outdoor furniture that I took advantage of when nobody was staying there.
Cooking can be a bit of a juggling act as there is a microwave in the apartment, a full stove in the beautiful new lounge a few steps away and, of course, the outdoor kitchen with its barbecue and power sockets if you want to cart the toaster out there at breakfast time. So if you plan to do a lot of cooking, you may want to spend a minute deciding what belongs where.
There's a decent TV and I think there's a DVD player - I only watched a couple of hours of cricket during my 2 weeks there.
Linda and Al are extremely obliging hosts - bigger glasses, a small saucepan and a number of odds and ends were produced the moment I asked for them.
I strongly recommend this place if you want to be away from it all but within 5 minutes drive or half an hour's walk (round the shore at low tide) into Orewa town with its shops & restaurants. I'll be back!!!