Tots on Travel: Accommodation in New Zealand

Here's a list of accommodation that we stayed in whilst in the North Island. All of the accommodations were booked via booking.com except for the one in Auckland booked via Air B&B.

1) Auckland Airport - Silver Oaks Inn – Silverpoint
(138 Mckenzie Road, Auckland, 1010)

This apartment is rated only 2 1/2 star on Tripadvisor. I normally would not touch such low-rated places with a bargepole but desperate times called for desperate measures. We arrived at Auckland past midnight and would need a place to crash for only a few hours until we leave Auckland the next morning so would not want to spend more than necessary.

At NZD190 per night for a 4-bed studio, this was the cheapest I could get. With experience, all I could say is that the rating is well-deserved. The only saving grace was the free (and fairly prompt) airport shuttle for the 10-minutes drive to the motel, even when it was already past 1 am. The next morning, the same shuttle sent us back to the airport to get our rental car.

2) Tauranga @ Bay of Plenty - SURE Harbour View Motel
(7 Fifth Avenue East, Tauranga, 3110)

Located just off Tauranga Harbour, it has great views of the harbour from the living room's bay windows. Our 2-bed apartment was tastefully decorated with nautical colours and comes with a fully equipped kitchen, the latter made it easy for us to have home-cooked food for dinner that night.

Our harbour-view motel in Tauranga

Breakfast with a view

Mount Maunganui is only a 10 minutes drive away and there is a huge Pak N' Save Supermarket just minutes away. The motel is also within walking distance from Tauranga city centre which unfortunately we did not have time to explore.

3) Rotorua - Blue Lake TOP 10 Holiday Park
(723 Tarawera Road, 3076 Rotorua)

Lakeside holiday park

Top 10 is one of the major holiday parks chain in New Zealand. The one that we stayed in, a Standard 2-bedroom cabin for NZD185, at Rotorua was perhaps just one of your bog-standard cabins but the location was a different story.

I can still remember the drive from Rotorua city centre. After the 10-minutes drive, we were going down a gentle slope towards a sharp bend and then suddenly there was the lake around the bend with the holiday park just across the road. The waning daylight made it impossible to the the blueness of the lake but there was still a magical quality to the place. With the verdant greens of the forest and native bush nearly completely surrounding the lake and the holiday park, it was like being in a giant bowl.

My bowl of tranquility

It only started with toe-dipping but Irf got attracted with the
crystal clear water and soon was drenched from the waist down

4) Lake Taupo - Boulevard Waters Motor Lodge
(215 Lake Terrace, 3330 Taupo)

If we only had to cross a small road to get to Blue Lake from our cabin in Rotorua, we could practically throw a stone into Lake Taupo from our balcony in this motel. The unit that we stayed in was nicely done-up, with a seperate room at the back for 2 more guests. Sitting on the bed, all I could see were water and, in the distance, mountains and hills with Mount Ruapehu and Mount Tongariro as centrepieces. We did not manage to go to Tongariro National Park but having views of Mordor and Mount Doom from our room was a great consolation.

Our room on the water's edge

Another piece de resistance was the "in-room spa", which transalated into a huge circular bathtub in the room itself, with buttons and all to turn it into a jacuzzi/whirlpool.

Irf's mini pool in the room

A toaster, kettle and coffee machine
- and life is complete

5) Auckland - Apartment on Halsey Street booked via AirB&B

Getting an accommodation in Auckland was the single most difficult thing that I had to do on this trip. I trawled the web for days on end, always ending up with exorbitantly-priced hotels and apartments, upwards of RM2,000 per night for the 4 of us. Hostels were out of the question since we had my mother with us.
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I hold Adele fully responsible for this. I found out later in Auckland that Adele was having a concert the same weekend we were there. Apparently there's a short supply of hotel rooms in Auckland, a problem intensified whenever there is an international event/concert.

So I ended up booking a 2-bedroom apartment through Air B&B. Cheaper than hotel rooms at that time but still the most expensive accommodation I have booked in my entire life.