Kaiteriteri Reserve Apartments

The location of the apartment building was excellent, right across from the beach, and next to tour operators. The amenities in the apartment were complete – kitchen equipment, washer dryer, etc. Be careful NOT to leave food on the kitchen counter as there were long trails of ants marching along the counter every day/night. That must be a regular occurrence as there were bottles of ant spray in the kitchen. And more importantly, if you are seniors or have a lot of luggage, find out if your apartment is on the 2nd floor. If so, read on. After a very long day – dropping off the rental vehicle at 7:15am, taking the ferry from the North Island, picking up another rental vehicle, then driving 3 ½ hours - we arrived at the Kaiteriteri Reserve Apartments at 5:45pm. The receptionist gave us the key to our apartment, told us where to park, then pointed to the building and said we had to take the stairs to our room on the second floor. We had requested on day one from our local NZ travel agent that we needed accommodation with easy access. So, we were surprised at the need to take stairs, particularly when we had 2 large suitcases that were needed for a 44-day holiday. When we showed our surprise, the receptionist said, “It’s only 12 steps.” She neglected to mention there were also 5 steps to get up to the walk way to reach the stairs to the apartment. We decided to check out the apartment first, taking only some smaller and lighter items with us. First of all, we looked around and noticed a ramp at the opposite end of the building that would alleviate the need to carry luggage up the 5 steps – a major omission by the receptionist. Then we saw the stairs and were dismayed, knowing we would have to remove items from our luggage and take them up in plastic bags as it was clearly not possible for us to carry our cases up the stairs. After checking out the apartment, we noticed another set of stairs closer to us. So, we went down this second set of stairs and at the bottom, lo and behold, we were facing AN ELEVATOR!!! Why would this office receptionist not mention the ramp and especially, the ELEVATOR? She could unmistakably see we were seniors (my husband is 80 years old), exhausted from travel, and dismayed with the reference to stairs. And she was clearly an experienced office personnel as she knew her way around with no hesitation. She made a point of noting that there were 12 steps. Did she want to reduce the usage of the ramp/elevator in order to reduce maintenance costs? The elevator couldn’t have been a secret as we saw other guests use the elevator with their luggage the next 2 days. It is unfathomable that an employee in the hospitality industry would not assist their guests to make their travel easier – and with something as simple as INFORMATION.

The beachfront units are fantastic, off course you pay for the view and beach access, where else in the world has this location at an affordable price? The rooms have amenities where you can supermarket shop and look after yourself or use the restaurant close by.

This is the second year in a row we have been camping here. This year got a prime spot in s right on the beach. Huge sites. Felt very safe with the amount of park rangers around. I could hear them checking teenagers pockets as they went to the beach with booze. Had one loud night with teenagers. Luckily we took some ear plugs. Kids had a great time. All they want ro do is play at the beach and could happily spend all day there

Great stay, really close to Motueka too for supplies (although local store is pretty good too).

Most convenient and beautiful place to stay in golden bay👌