Helen's place was in a good location - within walking distance through a nice neighborhood to the Ellerslie Racecourse. The room was small, but the bed was comfortable.
Unfortunately, I have to give a negative review because of some behavior from the host, Helen. She was very accomodating with the check-in process and even gave me a call afterward to let me know that I had left my jacket at her place, and offered breakfast in the morning. However, during one of our chats, she expressed some very racist viewpoints regarding Māori people in New Zealand: first that she opposed changing the westernized names of towns/cities in New Zealand to the indigenous Māori names. Then, completely unprompted, she said that Māori in New Zealand all just "need to get off their bums and work harder" - completely trivializing the systemic racism that Māori in New Zealand face.
Again, the stay and the place itself was fine, but these comments made me (as a minority myself) feel extremely uncomfortable, and would hate to think about how Māori guests at Helen's place would be treated.