Nice quiet home, on a nice quiet private drive, off a nice quiet road, in a nice quiet neighborhood. The hosts are fantastic ... the perfect hosts. The property is a good for a base of operations when exploring the central part of the north island. There is off-street parking, as the home is down a private driveway. Entrance is around the back, so your living room / dining room opens to a lovely well manicured garden pictured. Every morning, we ate breakfast on the table pictured in the photo.
There is a fun nightlife/street dining/restaurant scene a few km away in the beach strip of Touranga. This is an easy drive, or an easy bike ride down the bay-side bike trail. Shawn outlined a fun day, which follows. Bicycle to Mount Maunganui, hike to the 232m top, take in the view; descend the mountain; Swim in the South Pacific; shower at the lifeguard station; have dinner in one of the many restaurants; bicycle home. When you read it, it sounds like 45 minutes, when in truth, its 4-5 ... or more hours.
Its a 45 minute drive to Hobbiton; not much more to see hot springs at Rotorua, Waitomo and its glow worm caves, also drive south and east down the coast of the South Pacific to very quiet coastal towns. Or a nice day drive to Coromandel and back.