Normally, I like to start with all the positive things we experienced during our stay at someone's home, but truly, the best part of it was the cat, Mischief. We had no contact with Catherine, which is in itself a bit awkward, but even more so since we entered through her private living quarters before heading upstairs to our room. As a friend of mine said when I described this to her, "that's a bit creepy." We are by no means needy guests; we're in fact, highly independent. But I believe it's important to make guests feel welcome in some way, and we really didn't get that vibe.
The room is a square, white box, with a window so high it feels "prison-like." The space is extremely tight, so we had to crawl over our luggage to move about. And probably our biggest issue was with the "breakfast" set up in the closet! There was no plug-in for the hot pot, and no real milk (since there wasn't a fridge) for cereal. So we left without breakfast, though it's indicated on the listing.
And while we absolutely LOVE cats, my pants were covered with cat hair and I had to wear them like that for the rest of my stay in NZ. A lint roller would have been vary handy.