Te Maiki Escape - Russell Holiday Home

Spacious and clean with amazing views over the water

Property was a bit dated Very steep access to the property.

Great spot and views

Needed some maintenance. The balcony seems hazardous.

Location

Dated, only one toilet, dangerously low handrail around deck

Location was wonderful.

Needs sun shade option, a shade sail or canopy for the exposed deck. Old stove, fridge, kitchen items. Musty smell in second bedroom (carpet?)

The owner / caretaker Gabby was really welcoming and friendly. The proximity of the facility to the centre of town is also really good! location! location! location! ;) However, location, location, location isn't everything! Yes the unit had a spectacular view, but the unit is literally falling apart. The doors and window frames are broken. the floor is rotten and subsiding in the kitchen, in the hallway / passage between the kitchen and the bathroom, and in one of the bedrooms. As noted in other reviews, the unit is seriously dated and is in desperate need of maintenance and a refurbishing / upgrade.

Albeit so, all of the aforesaid might still have been forgiven, but what I found to be truly inexcusable, was how filthy and dirty the unit was. We literally had to wash all of the crockery (glasses, cups, plates), cutlery (forks, knives, spoons, and other utensils) and well as all of the cookware (pots and pans) before use. For context - the spatula appeared to still have the previous guests' food stuck to it when we retrieved it from the utensil drawer, and the majority of the glasses, plates, forks, knives and spoons were all disgustingly filthy. The kitchen drawers are broken and cupboards inside and on top were dirty. The living room was dirty with the coffee table being unwiped and sticky, and the tv and tv stand also probably hasn't been given a dusting since being installed. Unfortunately we also had one day of rain where we moved the couches to make some playroom for our 3 year old son - however, I honestly wish we hadn't gone that far! Apart from the carpet being dirty as a start, I sincerely doubt that the carpet under the couches had ever been hoovered or cleaned since the couches had been placed down. The removable pillows on the couches revealed disgusting filth from previous guests i.e. nails, and food crumbs etc. The three bedrooms in the unit weren't much cleaner either. As we wiped the insides of the wardrobes, the imprints from our hands were clearly visible and outlined by the dust and dirt picked up by the wiping cloth. The Linen was "clean-ish" but was old, faded, and had the scent of dust on it. For context - the beds smelt like the had been made and left for weeks for dust to settle on. The unit also didn't have an shade umbrella for the table outside (i had to borrow one from unit 6 which was empty) and the barbeque assigned to our unit was really old, unclean and moldy. Needless to say, it didn't work, and so I also borrowed the barbeque from unit 6 to use instead.

Location

Property a bit dated

Very beautiful view

None

Beautiful view