Millennium Hotel Rotorua

We recently booked a mystery hotel through Wotif, for a quick overnighter in Rotorua. I would've been dubious about the idea but several friends recommended it, and when I checked it out I realised there was very little risk involved.  We knew the star rating, hotel vicinity and basic facilities (all the important ones - spas, free wifi etc).

As you can see, we ended up in a really horrible hotel *wink*. Really, we were very happy to end up at Millennium Hotel (we were going to book there anyway), and at $100 for a double room, the price was pretty unbeatable. I'm now so sold on this idea, and we'll definitely be using Mystery Hotels in the future.  

The Rooms:  Ours were really simple and comfortable.  The bathroom was luxe and the beds were perfect.  There really wasn't much decor to speak of, but every necessary item was provided, including plenty of storage space.  We were located on the third floor, and thus had a view (of the shopping district - and pretty night lights).

We went with a double room once again, and again, it was perfect.  There was a little noise the following morning, but well after we had awoken so it didn't bother us.  Our only difficulty was navigating the hotel to find the spas.  Once we'd figured that out we were totally sweet :-)

The Facilities:  Millennium has a ton of excellent facilities, including a fitness centre, spa pools and therapy rooms, a mega heated pool and two restaurants.  Not to forget the bar, which we pretty much can forget about when we're hotel-side with our kiddos.

The spa pools were amazing, set in a lovely, tranquil room that felt at once private and still easily accessible.  They hold poolside cultural performances on a nightly basis (I believe), but the night we stayed this didn't happen and so we pretty much had the big pool to ourselves.  Yuss!  

I was really tempted to get a manicure while we were there, but in the end we were just in too much of a rush.  Next time, definitely :-)

The Service: We really didn't interact with anyone much during our stay, which was exactly what we wished for.  On a few occasions we needed a small amount of assistance and they were very, very sweet.  Like that time I locked us out of our room after a morning swim.  Or that time I spilt lots of soft drink on the carpet... 

The Location:  Centrally located, we were minutes from the lake, museum and a bunch of other attractions.  We had no difficulty finding the hotel and had we stayed longer, could easily have found our way around central Rotorua on foot.  The hotel is temptingly close to the Polynesian Spa, which I would love to try one day, and walking distance to a host of restaurants and cafes.

Perfect for: families.  We noticed that Millennium Hotel seemed popular with family groups, and it's not hard to figure out why.  There is plenty here to keep kiddos happy while you relax.  Obviously the pool and spas are favourites, but they also have this cute courtyard garden, perfect for sunnier days than we had.  The sky channels include Disney, so there's always that as a back up.

Our kids are quite easily pleased, and the tunnel and elevators were probably their highlight.  It was bitterly cold so probably safest to enjoy these 'attractions', rather than brave the courtyard.  

From the website it looks like Millennium Rotorua has relatively well-priced rooms (and some bonus deals) most of the time, so we would definitely book in here again.  I kinda love the mystery though, so who knows where we'll stay next time...

Local Love - Kerikeri Mission Station

I finally caught my first cold of the season, which makes for the perfect opportunity to finish writing this post.  I've had these photos uploaded for over a month now, this little road trip is vague in my recollection, although I can't quite put out of mind the swooping metal road into Horeke.  Trees closing in and everything feeling a little closer than I wanted it to feel. I actually had a few photos from Horeke itself but I'd rather revisit sometime, and take nicer ones. Besides, Horeke deserves it's own post.  

We took this trip on a whim.  It was school holidays and I was feeling some feels and really wanted to stretch a little from the confines of everyday.  And mostly to escape my very messy house.  Not that we went very far at all, but it was really nice to have an adventure together.  We kinda just ended up at the Mission Station, after an hour or two driving.  I hadn't visited since my late tweens and was more than a little delighted to find it was better than I remembered.

Our visit fell on a Sunday so we didn't take any tours, though the Stone Store itself was open and filled with a thousand things I desperately wished to purchase.  I bought a few presents and left it at that, but I can't un-know that there is a shop in our nearish vicinity with SO MANY covetable items.  

Eleanor was convinced that the Stone Store was a castle and I went along with that secretly wishing our road trip had taken us to a real, actual castle, somewhere in Europe maybe...  I think the highlight of their trip was an unscheduled grocery shop, at an actual supermarket.  Makes me realise truly what bunnies we are now.  We're like "SHOPS!!!! *googly eyes*."

I fell a bit in love with the cottage garden, forever my favourite kind (the more of a tangled mess, the better).  It would've been nice to visit Honey House Cafe, or eat a meal at The Pear Tree - but the supermarket with it's shiny-shopping-trolleys-that-are-actually-aeroplanes awaited.

If you're traveling Northside, I recommend stopping in.  There's a good sized park across the bridge, perfect for picnics and non-stop cricket.  Kemp House is definitely worth a visit too (from memory anyway - and yes, I was one of those absolutely cool teens that sincerely enjoyed visiting historical houses - I may even have been the only teen in that category - in the WORLD).

Maybe once we've finished relocating our every worldly possession, we'll consider taking another road trip. Looking at these photos makes me realise that this is something we kinda need to do more of.