We had a great stay at Joe's place. From the moment we arrived until the evening we left . . . everything worked out great. In fact, because our flight home left very late in the evening Joe let us stay past the check-out time with no extra cost. He was a great host with lots of valuable information about New Zealand . . . where to go, what to do . . . best way to travel around, etc.

As for our accommodations . . . it was everything he said (and the pictures showed) it would be. The limited shower time was not a problem and I loved that he had running HOT water. The linens were clean and the place was tidy. Lots of nostalgic pictures, books and magazines displayed which I thought was pretty cool. All necessary cooking supplies were available to us and if we needed anything else I'm sure Joe would have done everything he could to supply it if we asked him. In fact, we bought tickets to an outdoor concert and needed beach chairs. Joe was more than happy to help us out by letting us use his own personal chairs. Very generous of him.

I'm surprised by one of the former reviewers who was not happy with her accommodations. I took my boyfriend to NZ to surf Raglan for his birthday but I'm not a surfer and probably spent more time at Joe's place than anywhere else. I was perfectly happy where I was. It was comfortable, the place was nice and cool, the view of Raglan couldn't be beat and I felt like I was living the way the locals do. Isn't that part of the reason to travel to a foreign country? Being at Joe's added to my overall experience of being in New Zealand and I would definitely stay there again.