We stayed one night in an A frame in Bicheno by the Bay. The unit was beautiful, well equipped, tastefully decorated and large. The bed was very comfortable . The location is very close to the sea. Quiet location helpful staff. We wished we had stayed longer and used Bicheno and Bicheno by the bay as our base for a few days.

The deposit taken from my credit card on booking was greater than that advised by my booking site. We were a party of four older people, one couple and two women all from different countries. As such, I deliberately only looked at accommodation with one queen and either two singles or an additional two bedrooms. Here, I chose a two bedroom chalet with two singles in the second room - all that showed available on the booking site I chose. On arrival we were given a chalet (with steep narrow internal stairs) with two queen beds. Back at reception I was told the booking site had not notified them of our requirements (despite my pointing out that was all they had available) and that adults only want queen beds and the singles are required for children. If we had wanted single beds we should have booked directly with them and requested that. She said it would have been cheaper, but I had checked that prior to booking and found it not to be the case because of the discount I received. Nevertheless we had fortunately arrived early enough to be able to swap our chalet for another where the tenants, who had not yet arrived, had only one child. This site was actually better with a flat entrance and no stairs. The chalet had a kitchen with a full sized fridge and cook top and plenty of utensils. It also had a balcony with table and chairs and was set in the bush. The decor was old and basic (not as pictured in the advertising with Scandinavian style wood panels) The toilet was separate from the bathroom but had a wonky door. The heating for the unit was set on 28 degrees which I felt was too high so turned it down to 22. However this was insufficient so I kept turning it up until it reached 28 and even then it was still far too cold in the evening, heating only one small corner of the lounge. We just used our coats until we went to bed (which was comfortable and warm) In the morning we discovered that the refrigerator had been set on medium. All our food and drink had frozen solid. We had to throw out our salad ingredients and fruit - then keep our bread and chicken to thaw as we travelled and make sandwiches when we were ready for lunch. I told the receptionist when I handed in the key - she said it was surprising as the fridge had been defrosted just prior to our arrival (there was a build up of ice in the freezer section when we were there) There was no apology. If you have children there was a swimming pool which would be good for them.

Nice quirky accommodation with fabulous views of the blowhole. Proximity to town was excellent so we could walk in for dinner and back easily. Beach and the rocks were all close by and facilities were excellent. Will come back here for longer than one night next time.