Amazing location and cosy inside, but poorly equipped, expensive, and anxious hosts.
On the positive side: the apartment is in an amazing location with expansive views over the village of Gulf Harbour. It is a short walk to the marina, shops and ferry to Auckland. The apartment is well located for those staying or working at the marina. The hosts have put effort into the decoration of the apartment with candles and art everywhere.
On the negative side: the apartment is very expensive for what you get. We were forced to book due to impending covid-19 lockdown, but have since found many other local options that are of a high quality, larger size and better equipped for significantly less. Also, during our stay the hosts were continuously looking for ways to charge us extra which was grating. The WiFi in the listing is virtually unusable, it is unstable and poor speed. We ended up tethering to our phones for the entire stay! The apartment is well suited to short term weekend stays but has limited equipment for longer stays. For example, there isn’t any cleaning equipment, so the rug is impossible to keep clean! Also, the apartment suffers from really bad electrics. During our stay the kitchen circuit shorted almost once a week often preventing us from making dinner or restarting the washing machine. Finally, the hosts are generally anxious and untrusting. We have sailed a superyacht from London to New Zealand and were stranded here as the world closed down, we are competent, clean and reliable. However, they insisted upon weekly checks which felt like a significant invasion of our privacy. We also felt like they were always spying on us, doing tasks in the garden so they could look through the windows. On one occasion I left a yoga mat at a hotel in Opua and when a friend drove by to drop it off the hosts angrily accused me of running yoga classes in the apartment!
Generally recommended for short weekend stays if you need to be close to the marina, but plenty of more relaxed, spacious and better value options in the surrounding areas.