Familienfreundliche Hotels in Karikari-Halbinsel

My wife and I are elderly, still work, and like to treat ourselves with a bit of luxury occasionally. We love classy hotels. We are not golfers but Carrington Estate is a lovely place. We had the best room in the Lodge. Great views over the golf course to the ocean beyond. Had a game of pool in the Library. All good so far. The restaurant.... The food was probably excellent, but some of the staff are exceptionally rude, arrogant, and argumentative. This is what happened. We ordered a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc off the restaurant wine list. Our young waitress came back and apologised that they had sold out of their own Sauvignon. (Carrington have their own vineyard). Their's was the only Sauvignon Blanc on the wine list which struck me as a little unusual for a restaurant of this standard? We don't drink other styles of wine. I asked our waitress if I could retrieve a bottle of our own Sauvy from our room fridge. That was fine she said, and when I returned she had brought two wine glasses to the table. After our food arrived another waitress/duty manager, Emma C stopped at our table and told us that we couldn't drink our own wine. I explained the whole story but she just got angry, stood there with her hands on her hips and ”told us off” loudly. She threatened to confiscate our bottle and then called for back-up from a male colleque, Giovanni. They both stood over us, arguing loudly. I invited Giovanni to sit at our the table so we could discuss this without causing us embarrasment in front of the other guests. Nope. Our food was now going cold so I asked them both to leave us alone and explained that my wife and I both work in tourism/sales and customers/guests should never be treated like this. We hurredly finished our meals, paid and left. But this wasn't good enough for them. They apologised to all the other guests in the restaurant but blamed us for bringing in our own wine. Of course they didn't mention we had permission, and there was no Sauvy available for purchase. No, they were the heros and we were the bad guys. We were humiliated. Couldn't use the restaurant in the morning of course because all the other guests would have recognised us. We didn't due anything wrong. Thanks Emma C and and Giovanni for wreaking our day off. Your behaviour was disgraceful. You don't deserve to be in our wonderful Country. Go home soon please before you destroy other business's and reputations.

Our family thoroughly enjoyed our stay. Camp ground was clean, tidy with good facilities. The tent site was big, the kids could safely navigate their way around, the beach was nice short walk away!

It's not posh, very comfortable and clean. Took our two old dogs for a couple of nights holiday. Lou and Tony (new managers) are warm and inviting. We had a great stay. Our small unit was better than we expected. BBQ area, washing machine, small well stocked shop. The dogs loved staying there just as much as we did. Don't forget bedding for your dogs and the essentials- lead, water bowl and a towel. Just a few steps to the beautiful beach. Really relaxing

We spent a blissful few days enjoying the stellar private view from the Pohutukawa cabin (see photo), which had everything we needed for a very comfortable stay. Bonus: we enjoyed watching the neighbour's cows cruise by for a visit while the sun set on the spa pool! The shower was excellent, too. Maitai Bay, only a short drive away, was our favorite beach during our entire 3 weeks in NZ. In the other direction, the shops in nearby Mangonui had yummy fish and chips and ice cream - though we didn't need to leave the Karikari Lodge to be well fed. Katalina was so generous feeding us local seafood feasts. On our final day, even with Cyclone Gabrielle looming in the forecast, Paul and Katalina toured us down the length of Tokerau Beach -- including digging for tuatua! Quite fun once we got the hang of it. I hope we can return on our next trip to NZ. Big thanks to Paul and Katalina for welcoming us so kindly!