Clive Colonial Cottages

We stayed in the two roomed apartment in April 2022. The owners have made a reasonable effort to make it look a little less like a motel, and it is nicely decorated. The beds and pillows are excellent. On arrival you get free breakfast makings and a whole litre of milk, good for our five nights stay. There was coffee and tea, (organic fair trade) and the eggs for the breakfast were free range. There was however nothing without caffeine. Our cottage was wheelchair accessible, and the bathroom/shower was arranged to be that way also with grab bars in the shower and by the toilet. There are no bedside tables but large cupboards either side the beds with shelves in one where you can put your clothes, and hangers in the other. There is also a small shelf above the bed where you can put your glasses and what have you. The glassware, dishes and flatware are adequate if not exciting, however there is a full glass topped cooktop, and a combination microwave conventional oven, which means you could cook a full meal there if you wanted to. We found barbecue tools in one of the drawers. There is a cupboard with ironing board hairdryer and so on also. The cottage was heated and cooled with a heat pump which seemed very efficient. There is a wash house with washing machine and dryer. The place is set in some quite nice grounds, there are barbecues, a billiards table and some books available. You can sit outside on the deck if it's sunny and drink your tea. It is surrounded by farms and orchards, which may be a little noisy at times but we never heard anything the whole time we were there, when apple picking was going on. Nighttime was absolutely quiet, not even a car on the road that we ever heard. Best five nights' sleep we've ever had in a hotel I think. One of the reasons we liked it was its centrality. No more than 15 minutes away from the major provincial towns in the Hawke's Bay. A couple of small niggles but no real deal breakers – although the owner lady doesn't seem to believe in masks, which might be a problem for some. The test of a good place is if you would stay there again, and I definitely would.

We stayed her for 2 nights. The cottage was very clean and the shower nice and modern. The bed was also comfotable. Breakfast items given were OK, even with eggs from their own chooks. We never got to meet the host Rachel as she had been called away before we arrived and had let us know this the day before. The disappointing part of our stay were missing items, like no tea or an extra toilet roll. After contacting her, we were told later to go to the empty Bluebird cottage to get those. The washing machine & dryer along with the iron & ironing board we were told (when we couldnt find them) were stored in a shed, 10mtrs away. Not a very clean one at that. We had to carry iron & huge old board into the cottage to use it. Even though Rachel arrived back the following day, she didnt have the courtesy to come to our cottage & welcome us to her B&B and make sure herguests were happy. To us, that is an important part of running a B&B as its a personal touch, and little things like that matter. We would not say there again.