The house is situated in Westmere, so its a nice 20-30min walk to the hip Herne Bay/ Ponsonby area which has loads of cool restaurants and shops - see Ponsonby Central/ Street food Collective/ Ponsonby foodcourt etc. There is a bus stop located 10 meters down the road which gets you into the city in about 15min or to the nearby neighbourhoods in 10min. The link services run every 15 min so pretty easy to get around. I often walked into town as well and caught a bus back at the end of the day - good way to see the city. Directly across the road is a bakery, a wine and craft beer store, organic grocery, 2 good coffee shops, fish and chips shop and one of the best butcheries in Auckland! You can walk down the hill to the Cox Bay reserve for some exercise etc. About the house: The vibe is super relaxed and there is a cool cat called Lucky who hangs out. There is a great porch in the backyard with seating space etc and a grill if the weather is good! Judy is a great lady - strong character, well travelled, into nature, great cook (!!!!), loves a laugh & a chat and literally made me feel like family. I stayed in the double room at the front of the house for three weeks - comfy bed, desk etc and wifi throughout the house. Found it really easy staying there - you could socialise as much or as little as you wanted to, getting around was easy and Judy is super happy to give you advise on getting out and about :)