This was a month long stay across the holidays. We wanted to know what it would feel like to live in Auckland before buying. Great learnings about so many home and grounds choices that helped offset the high price.
The house and grounds are a real classic with great choices. My family really enjoyed the mornings before the heat of the day. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a warm spell with 25 degrees and high humidity at night--no AC or fans in and sleep suffered.
The plum tree in the back yard dropped a couple thousand plumbs while we were there. This created a lot of fun blackbird action but also so many flies that it was gross inside and too warm to keep doors shut long. The house should have been sprayed for flies which would have reduced them 80%.
Sam's place is not a typical AirBnB and it showed: little space made in the freezer and refrigerator created challenges for living and cooking healthy over a month. We missed our cookware and a good washing machine.