While the place is stunning and in a gorgeous location, we were disappointed to arrive to find the owner’s brother staying in the cottage, the place uncleaned and the hosts not expecting us (despite a message from Shelley a couple of days before confirming our arrival details). This meant we felt we had to make ourselves scarce while we waited for Shelley to arrive home from work to clean, which wasn’t ideal with two kids after an eight-hour drive.
We actually had a similar experience a couple of weeks earlier during our NZ trip and we were offered a refund for our first night’s accommodation, which didn’t happen this time. We were surprised that Shelley made no effort to seek us out to apologise (until our sixth and final evening), although her partner did apologise and assure us Shelley would be ‘devastated’ by the mistake. At around £200 per night, this was a really special place for us to be staying at the end of our trip, so it did leave us feeling a bit disappointed as we felt our experience fell short of the feeling of luxury we expected from other reviews and the price.
One other suggestion would be to have some more local info available. There are some stunning walks/breweries/wineries around but there was very little information in the cottage.
Despite the issues above, it is a great place to stay in one of the most beautiful places we visited in NZ. It is really peaceful and we were kindly offered the chance to pick fresh apples and plums from the trees in the owners’ gardens, which the kids loved.