We stayed at Russell and Shemedarose’s lovely backyard cottage for two days while in Auckland. We found the cottage perfect for us; spotlessly clean, well appointed, and private. It's an easy walk to restaurants and a grocery store as well as couple beautiful parks and the Auckland Zoo. Very friendly hosts who are more than willing to help but also respect you privacy. We enjoyed chatting with them and meeting their very friendly greyhound Smudge. Highly recommended and will definitely stay there again if we find ourselves bat in Auckland.