I was upgraded to the Presidential Suite.

I never ask to be upgraded and don't complain if I don't get one, so it was entirely at the hotel's initiative. I chose the cheapest possible rate that was available during my time in NZ, which was NZ$210.

The Presidential Suite (room #562 ) is offered for as low as $1200 per night, which is actually a good price per person if you max out the permitted occupancy of 8 people. However, 2 people will be sleeping on sofas unless kids sleep with parents, or some of the party are polygamous.

It is on the top floor and is the furthest room from reception. It has a private landing with a lift to the underground garage directly outside the front door (though the lift does stop at all floors). Parking in the underground garage, normally for a fee of $15, is complimentary as this room has a dedicated parking space.

We got to the room at 1930 and needed to drive off by 0720, therefore I just parked outside the reception area. A valet was offered to move the car to the underground space, but I declined as breakfast starts at 0700 and spending the extra minutes to navigate to the garage would have taken up valuable eating time.

The suite has 2 living areas, a dining area, 3 bedrooms, an entertainment room, a kitchen and laundry room. There are balconies on 3 sides (although one is only accessible via a bathroom).


The foyer on entering the suite with the north-east balcony (best for sunrise)

The foyer leads to the dining area with a Presidential table.

In the other direction - the main south-west balcony facing the lake for watching the sunset.



On the right hand side of the dining area (as you enter the suite) - a smaller living area in front and the kitchen behind.

There are several ovens, a hob/stove, 9 drawers containing about 20 sets of cutlery, dishes, cooking equipment, etc.

There is a huge fridge-freezer (not pictured) with a water dispenser.

There is a washing machine, tumble dryer and two dishwashers (the further two handles on the left). Owing to a malfunction, the dishwashers were full of dirty dishes. The staff who showed us to the room apologised but it wasn't like we were going to use them; and it would have been silly to wait outside for an hour while they tried to get them restarted.

Main balcony from either direction

There were multiple cobwebs all over the furniture indicating that they are not used very often.

View of the lake (but mainly the carpark). Restaurant building is at the top right of the image.

The second living area on the left as you walk into the suite.

Leading up to the first bedroom.

This bedroom is linked by a rather long and dark passageway of about 9m/30ft to a luxurious bathroom (bath tub with water jets not pictured). The shower has a rainmaker plus two shower heads (which are each bigger than an average hand). The controls are slightly complicated and adjusting the temperature or pressure of one outlet affects the others....

This bathroom was bigger than an entire room at properties with small rooms, e.g. the Hilton Stockholm or the Hotel Indigo Berlin Alexanderplatz, and had its own balcony. The balcony door was broken but I managed to fix it.

We chose to sleep in the largest bedroom, which oddly had no table. The mattress appeared to have some massage function, but it could not be powered up.

A turn down service was provided with slippers, a bottle of water and a small Guylian chocolate. The slippers were surprisingly low quality and felt like a few pieces of paper stuck together. We used the slippers from our Qatar Airways flight.

There were no usable plug sockets by the bed therefore I had to shift the bed 30cm to one side and unplug it as well as the the alarm clock in order to charge my devices. The nearest alternative plug that would not leave my phone dangling from the wall was 15m away in the dining area.


This bedroom had a much smaller bathroom. The amenities had not been replenished from the previous occupant, and some of the surfaces were covered in dust.


The third bedroom and bathroom was pretty similar to the second except with the addition of this mirror. It is next to the entertainment room, which is also next to the foyer (as we have now gone round the suite anti-clockwise).





Overall, we were pleased with the hotel, but it is typical that I usually only get upgraded when I can't really make use of the facilities. While upgrades are always appreciated, this room was really overkill for 2 people! We only spent about 2 hours awake in here, mainly because we decided to use the washing machine so that we had less washing to do when we got home. Rather than risking the tumble dryer we dried our clothes on the towel warmers!

It was mentioned upthread that breakfast has been an issue in the past. As Diamond, we received the full buffet and were able to order several menu items for free, but did not due to timing. However, somehow a charge for barista coffee, which we did not order, was sneaked onto the bill. At check-out, they tried to call the restaurant to confirm that we did not consume this item. I'm not sure how the staff were supposed to remember, but in any case, nobody picked up the phone after 1 minute so the charge was removed.

The buffet was not particularly extensive but was of good quality.

This was also the case with us. Although the mainland Chinese tour groups were polite, there were quite a lot of them and this caused crowding around the buffet area. Unsurprisingly, the most popular food, which was also the only Asian-themed item, was a poor imitation of a dumpling.

The tour groups were even more in a rush than us, and all departed by 0715. If the breakfast start time was pushed forward to 0630, the overcrowding issue might be solved.


On our drive to and from Auckland, there were roadworks every ~50km. As the majority of highways are one lane in each direction, one side is closed for the works and the remaining lane alternates between both directions. We spent over 2 hours in total not moving.