Stayed here on business recently, sadly it didn’t quite make the mark. Location is OK for town but it’s right on a busy junction so lots of traffic noise even into the night. Bed uncomfortable with awful pillows, room dark and poky. Bathroom OK if a bit small, the Breakfast was acceptable. But overall I wouldn’t stay here again through choice.

On checking in the apartments were as described on the internet. Location was just a quick 15 minute walk into town. Road noise was constant, it just didn’t let up.

The staff were friendly however they were severly let down by Leo’s rude agressive and at times childish behaviour which we felt was inapproriate and out of line for a 5 star property. We felt his motives were selfish and greedy.

We wanted to treat ourselves to a luxury stay to finish a wonderful trip to New Zealand. All our experiences to date in NZ had been wonderful, and we were looking forward to enjoying the lake and walks around Queenstown.

The ratings in TripAdvisor were high for Pouanamu, so we placed that at the top of our list

We did our homework and noticed on Google Maps that there was a road going past the front of the apartments, so contacted the manger before booking to see if the road was noisy. So, back in July 2010 I sought assurances that the apartment at Pounamu were not subject to traffic noise as we are both light sleepers.

We were assured that his would not be a problem. Taking them at their word we paid for a week in advance and made the reservation (paying for ten nights in advance as required for the busy New Year’s holiday period).

Upon check in we opened the front door to the apartment to enjoy to wonderful view of the lake (the reason we chose this), to be met by road noise from a never-ending stream of traffic (going both ways). We immediately raised this with the manager letting him know that this was not the expectation he set.

He assured us that the traffic died down about 7pm, and asked us to try it for one night to see if we could sleep. If not, we informed the manager that we would need to go to the i-site at 8AM on the 30th Jan (the next morning) to see if we could move elsewhere as Pounamu could not offer us an alternative apartment away from the road. By nine pm the traffic was still flowing constantly, and finally quietened down at 2h30 in the morning, when I could get some sleep before the traffic started up at 5:30 AM the next morning.

I contacted the manager the next morning to inform him that we found his original advice misleading and asking him to recognise this with a refund. He finally agreed to a four day refund, and would consider a further refund if the i-site could secure reservations to fill our apartment. I felt that the situation had clearly been misrepresented, that I felt misled into making an unsuitable reservation despite seeking assurances that the road would not be intrusive, and hence wanted to cancel my stay. They stood their ground and said that there would only be a refund if they could re-let the room.

The i-site were magnificent in finding us alternative accommodation in Queenstown. We were in Queenstown for a while, and could not spoil the trip with sleepless nights, so went down in desperation to the local i-Site (remember this is peak holiday season!). They were absolutely wonderful, sympathetic and confirmed that the Pouanamu owners were well out of order, and that they had received a number of negative comments from other visitors who had come to them to seek help. They went out of their way to find us as good a room as they could, and we ended up in a lovely room in a Scenic hotel, still with a view of the lake. I contacted the manager the next morning to inform him that we found his original advice misleading and asking him to recognise this with a refund. He agreed to a four day refund, and would consider a further refund if the i-site could find a reservation to fill our apartment. The i-site were magnificent in finding us alternative accommodation in Queenstown, and we paid for the nine nights remaining.

Not only did the i-site find us a place to stay, but Fae Robertson went beyond the call of duty and secured reservations for our apartment to help us get a refund

Pounamu ended up refunding four nights out of the nine (I was OK with having to pay for the one bad night I spent there), but were not prepared to refund the remaining five nights. We had drive past the apartment we had rented, and it was clearly occupied. The response I had from the manager when I tried to get a refund as the i-site had found people to take our room was as follows (quoted verbatim from his email) was negative – no refund for the remaining five days:

“The current Guest that is in the Apartment, we have shifted there from another Apartment at our convenience “

“The refund was based on filling the other vacant Apartments first and then re filling the Apartment. The exception to this was if we received a booking from I-site where that booking would acts as a credit for you. The only booking we got from I-site that applied came on New Years Eve which filled the 3 nights that we were prepared to take the risk on. On this basis we do not believe a refund is due.”

We were left feeling the management was at best disingenuous and even dishonest. Queenstown is a wonderful location with great accommodation – but not here!

Thank you for listening to my story. I am NZ$1,700 out of pocket through this experience, and wanted to make sure that anyone who is looking for a good place in Queenstown takes heed of the very noisy road. A luxury apartment? Only if you do not want to open the doors and sit on the balcony to enjoy the view you have paid for!!

Pounamu have refunded four nights, but as you can see are not prepared to refund the remaining five nights.

I have copied Fae Robertson of the i-site as she tried to get Pounamu to accept bookings to allow them to refund our original payment.

Thank you for listening to my story. I am $1,700 out of pocket through this experience, and wondered if there was anything I could do?

Queenstown is a beautiful place with far better service and facilities out there. We will be back to Queenstown but we certainly won’t be staying here again.

I had to list this as being in Kerikeri rather than Paihia, as the web site would not accept that Paihia was a place in New Zealand :-)

Anyway, on to the review. My wife and I booked here form the UK for an anniversary meal – choosing the location for its harbour-side setting alone.

What a wonderful surprise! The table was wonderfully located with a view over the sea (see photo) and the table sprinkled with hearts to welcome us.

The staff were extremely helpful, the service was excellent and the food just gorgeous. OK, we had a wee drop or two to accompany the meal, but despite the rose tinted view, it made for a lovely evening out.
Highly recommended!
I just wish we could afford another holiday in NZ :-)

Amazing Burgers and delicious Kumara fries! Was around the corner from my flat, I’ve been there maaaaaany times! Great veggie Burgers as well!

what a remarkable place. Perfect dining in great style with excellent wines from Cable Bay’s vineyards.

I was there with several friends the other day. We enjoyed winetasting for starters then went to the restaurant. The view was overwhelming. The food and the accompanying wines were absolutely first class.

Interestingly, the Maitre d’ had moved from Hamburg to Waiheke Island fairly recently. Common roots were discovered quickly and a perfect service became even better…

Next trip to NZ – dininig at Cable Bay Restaurant is a must!

Amazing veggie breakfast. Great staff and food is completely stunning. I recommend the spinach, avocado, egg and tomato breakfast.

Awesome and scary :-)
Standing on the glas top at this hight is a mix of emotions running through the body.
It´s also a wonderful view over the whole city, very beautiful during dawn.

Phantastisch und beängstigend :-)
Auf der Glasplattform zu stehen ist ein Mix der Gefühle, die durch den Körper laufen.
Besonders schön ist die Aussicht über die ganze Stadt, besonders während eines Sonnenuntergangs.

Great Museum! It´s a must for Wellington Visitors! Been there years ago for the “LotR” Exhibition and it was just awesome!
Take half a day for only the museum.

Supertolles Museum. Ein MUSS wenn man in Wellington ist! Waren dort zur “Herr der Ringe” Ausstellung und waren total begeistert.
Unbedingt wenigstens einen halben Tag mit einplanen!

Yummy!!!!

This restaurant is one of my favourite in Wellington — certainly my favourite Italian! The staff here are very welcoming and friendly providing great table service.

There are some fantastic items on the menu, I particularly love some of the seafood options (mussel spaghetti is delicious) but don’t decide until you have heard the daily specials, because there are usually some creative and tasty options on that list. I find the prices ($18-24 for a main pasta dish) to be very reasonable, especially considering the quality.

The wine list is also extensive, with options from around New Zealand, Australia and of course Italy.

The restaurant itself has a lovely ambient feel. There are two main dining areas — the front room which fronts on to Courtenay Place, and a quieter “courtyard” out the back. The lighting – including candles in wine bottles – adds to the ambience.

Whilst hunting for tourist tat in a tourist souvenir shop, we saw a postcard with some weirdly spherical rocks on and wondered where these odd boulders might be! Looking on the back of the post card we found that they were called the Moeraki Boulders and as luck would have it, we ended up driving along the route on the Otago coast, just off which these are found.

It was raining, and pretty miserably, as well as being horrendously muddy on the beach itself (due to the weather), but this little area of the coast with its boulders formed…well, I can’t quite remember exactly how but there’s a diagram inside the gift shop that shows you, as well as giving the other, less scientific, but more fun, Maori story…. was incredible. Very fun clambering over the boulders and finding amusing poses to take photos. Well worth a detour, but hopefully in better weather!

I remembered Puzzling World with affection from my first visit, 16 years ago. To my delight, when I visited again earlier this year, I found it just as amusing as an adult as I did as a child. The giant 3D maze (it includes bridges as well as a traditional flat maze) is good fun, and the illusions rooms are genuinely surprising.
My only quibble with the place is the price – it’s $15 to visit the maze and the illusion rooms, which is ok if there’s only two of you but can get quite steep if there are more. Still, I think it is worth it, and it makes for a great way to pass a couple of hours.