Adina Apartment Hotel Auckland is a lovely apartment style hotel – centrally located and withe a reasonable restaurant for breakfast/dinner.  Very close to the car hire depots, which adds to the convenience.

Waves Motel Orewa is a comfortable apartment style hotel just 10 minutes walk from Orewa town centre, which you can reach across the beautiful sandy beach.  It is so much nicer than staying in Auckland.  If you don’t want to shop for your own breakfast, you can order room service at a very reasonable price.

The Anchor Lodge Motel Coromandel is a convenient place to stay in this area.  It is close to restaurants and all the town’s amenities.  Two nights were enough though – the room felt a bit damp – probably because of the unusually wet weather at the tail end of the cyclone.

The Copsefield B and B offers reasonable accommodation with very welcoming hosts.  It is a real shame that it is 8km away from Whangamata though. We were lucky to have the accommodation all to ourselves for 4 nights – it might have been a bit cramped sharing the communal lounge/laundry facilities and gardens.

The Ruapehu Country Lodge is a great choice of accommodation close to the Tongariro National Park.  It is a very comfortable lodge with tea/coffee making facilities in the rooms and is a convenient 15kms from the edge of Tongariro National Park.  There is a hot tub in the garden which is nice to relax inn after a hard day’s waking.  Very friendly hosts who can’t do enough for you, including a laundry service ($15).

The Distinction Wellington Century City Hotel is a well equipped apartment style room with its own washing machine, which was handy at this stage of the trip. The hotel is well located for restaurants and the waterfront. 

Punga Cove Resort is a really lovely complex with 19 cabins built up the hillside with good facilities including a swimming pool, hot tubs, hammocks, sea kayaks and a table tennis table.  Our large cabin was a well equipped suite with kitchen facilities if required.  It is a pity we are only staying two nights here – you could easily spend longer as it is a lovely spot.

The Ocean View Chalets Marahau Beach offers extremely well equipped chalets with full kitchen facilities, laundry space and within easy walking distance of two reasonable restaurants – perfect!  The lovely sea views are a bonus too.  This was a great choice of accommodation for this portion of the trip and ticked all our boxes.

The Rocks Homestay Punakaiki is a reasonable choice of B&B with lovely views of the sea.  It is a short drive to Punakaiki from here, but it isn’t walkable.  There are a couple of restaurant options in the village, but you won’t find much beyond steak & chips/fish & chips or pizza.  The rooms are air conditioned which is welcome with the humidity of the pre-cyclone weather currently.  There is also good wi fi reception here.

Glenfern Villas offers well equipped accommodation with full kitchen facilities if you want to self cater and BBQs for hire.    There is also a laundry on site.

Peak Sportchalet Lake Wanaka is certainly a very well equipped chalet, with a full sized  oven and all the kitchen utensils you could possibly need.  There is a little private, sunny garden too, which is a great bonus.  Good laundry facilities and very friendly and helpful hosts add to the charm of this accommodation.  The Wi-Fi is free and fast too, which is always an important consideration for me!  

Blue Ridge Boutique B and B Te Anau is upmarket luxuriously appointed accommodation with tea and coffee making facilities in the room.  They even provided bathrobes here, which was nice.  There is a hot tub too.  Breakfast is a generous and conical affair in the host’s own kitchen.  Best of all, it is just a short walk into town where there are a variety of restaurants, so this lodging ticks all the boxes.

The Fiordland Navigator has comfortable enough little cabins with a tiny wash basin and a shower.  None of the cabins have a porthole, but this didn’t really matter as we were only on board 1 night.   The evening meal was a reasonable buffet style.  Soup was served mid afternoon and cakes etc. too, so you don’t need to bring a packed lunch.  This is a great way to see the Sounds and stay overnight so you can experience the peace of early mornings here before the crowds descend.

Peppers Beacon Queenstown is a functional hotel, conveniently located for walking to town and all the restaurants it offers.  Our balcony is very small though and the room is a bit tunnel-like and dark.  There are better rooms with wider windows and really good views of the lake which might be worth the upgrade if you are here for a while.  There is a good guest laundry and a bonus of a hot tub and sauna area too.  The buffet breakfast seemed very impersonal after all the friendly B&Bs we have been getting used to here!

The Hermitage Hotel Mount Cook has an enviably great location with stunning panoramic views from the restaurant.  Our room here was a bit small though and the kettle didn’t fit under the tap in the small wash basin (?!). There is very little choice of accommodation in this remote spot though and this hotel was as good as any.  Breakfast is a pricey $30 each, if you decide to take it.

Eliza’s Manor Boutique Hotel Christchurch is a quirky boutique hotel centrally located in Christchurch.  Our room had a huge bathroom with a roll top bath – nice!.  The staff are very helpful and welcoming and do everything they can to make your stay here comfortable.

The Crowne Plaza Coogee Beach is a perfect place to stay in Sydney.  Apart from great facilities it has very friendly and efficient staff.  The breakfast here was well worth the $25 charge.  We had a king sized room with an ocean view which was excellent.  There is a swimming pool too with an ocean view – we didn’t use it. but it looked very well maintained and inviting.  There is also a room you can use to shower and change once you have checked out. Highly recommended!

The Radisson Blu Hotel Media City Dubai is obviously a chain hotel, so we weren’t really expecting too much from it.  We hotel was chosen because of its location in Media City where we had hoped to visit the Food Festival.  In the end, we decided not to to go to the Festival, so a more central choice of hotel in Dubai might have been preferable.