There is no doubt about it - this is a beautiful residence and the view is spectacular. The furnishings are lovely and it was very clean. Unfortunately however, our stay was uncomfortable for two reasons:
1. We stayed with our one year old baby at the peak of NZ summer. With no air conditioning and the harshest of afternoon sun, the bedrooms upstairs absolutely swelter (our baby monitor said the temp was unsafe for a baby to sleep up there being over 39C). We were also unable to open the windows during the night as there are no flyscreens and mosquitoes are fierce - on the first night, our poor baby and my husband got eaten alive. Whilst there were fans, they did little to reduce the temperature.
2. We were unable to swim in the mirky cloudy pool which was very disappointing. Whilst we were advised that this was a product of the drought (and one cannot help the weather) this unfortunately rendered the reason we had chosen this villa over the others redundant.
Whilst this might be a comfortable place to say in the winter as it is set up with fireplaces etc, it is not equiped for the month of February in NZ and cannot be called a luxury stay for this reason.