As you quietly sweep up the drive to Kim and Mandy’s house, a sense of peace and rest envelopes you. It truly is a perfectly private place where you completely lose sense of being in the heart of a city. All around the house and driveway are mature leafy trees and shrubs beautifully planted with ample parking. It’s tranquil and quiet, and quite timeless.
Stepping through the lead light windowed entrance into the home, everything has a gracious and welcoming feel. There’s a wonderfully family/communal area with lounge and kitchen opening on to a deck. You go through two sets of doors to where the bedrooms are located. The rooms are large and well-laid out, with beds all made up, and towels and soaps waiting. Two large bedrooms open out onto a deck that again look out onto trees and in the distance and mostly obscured, theres a pond and large meadow peeking through. It’s like being in a country estate in a manor with a tasteful sense of luxury.
The house is warm and well-insulated but also has two heat pumps, which can be useful on those winter nights when you need to take the chill out of the air, especially if you’ve left the front door open while unloading luggage. We found during the first night of our stay that once we had switched them on for an hour, we could turn them off for the remainder of the night and the house stayed warm right through.
Mandy and Kim love leaving treats which we discovered with much delight. Cookies, nibbles, as well as plenty of coffee, varieties of teas AND hot chocolate! There were also breakfast cereals and some pantry non-perishable food items available for us which we didn’t use but very much appreciated the thoughtfulness. And plenty of condiments, oils, sauces and dressings to try out and milk in the fridge. Rice cookers are also available.
The designer kitchen itself was a pleasure to be in (as was all of the house) as it felt like everything in it was new from whiteware to cupboards and drawers. We loved the long white table and had many ‘cuppas’ sitting at it and chatting. There’s lots of good feel extras to like in this kitchen which made everything just so easy for us. We also loved the decor with the references to American culture and the red/white themes. It’s smart and sophisticated.
Off the kitchen is a deck which became another favourite place to sit and talk with plenty of seating around three tables. There’s also a covered barbecue which could be useful on an evening during a summer stay although I understand from reading the manual that that’s not actually included in the usual booking.
The lounge is spacious with a large coffee table, great kiwiana coasters and comfortable couches and beanbags. Theres a fireplace at one end creating again the sense of being in a luxurious manor. In a corner on a small table is a superb display of brochures highlighting the attractions in the region, which was greatly appreciated by our group. There are board games and books for people who want to sit back and relax, and there’s an invitation to walk down the driveway to a guest gazebo next to a pond with ducks which is quite delightful to go and see.
Seeing the faces of family staying with me and how much they were smiling, laughing and glowing, made me realise what a perfect location this was for us all to come and be together. We grew up in the country with a large country kitchen and Grassmere has all that but with a sense of luxury and ‘manor’ that one doesn’t always find on a busy farm.
Did I mention the five bathrooms? And the shopping mall at the end of the road that you barely know is there because you think you’re in the country? And how centrally located it is? We went to Sumner, New Brighton, the airport, art galleries, cafes, parks, museum, shopping malls - and each time commented on how perfectly located Grassmere is.
The hosts are very professional and wonderfully gracious as I discovered when querying something in advance of our stay, by email. They answered me each time so promptly, and gently corrected a misconception I had - mainly due to my haste to book what seemed like a wonderful place and I didn’t want anyone else to book it while I dilly dallied on line. And then we found that the property and our hosts themselves surpassed our expectations.
It was a complete joy to stay there. We go away every year as five sisters and our mother, now in her 80s, and explore a city in NZ. This year we also had two nieces with us. By far Grassmere has surpassed any other place we have stayed in and we would recommend the property and hosts as being top quality superb and professional. Thank you for hosting us.