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 Athenree Hot Springs Holiday Park, Athenree Bay Palm Motel, Mt Maunganui Ibis Hotel, Rotorua Miranda Hot Springs Holiday Park Novotel Lakeside Rotorua Athenree Hot Springs Holiday Park, Athenree1 Athenree Road, Athenree, Bay of PlentyPh: +64 7 863 5600 Fax: +64 7 863 5600 http://www.athenreehotsprings.co.nz/ This is a place I have been many years consecutively now as it has such great facilities. The accessible chalets have been purpose built. They are 2 bedrooms with an awesome wet area shower and toilet with rails. A full kitchen with microwave, fridge, stove top so self catering is a breeze. One room has two single beds and the second has a double bed. The dining, lounge area has all the modern amenities such as TV, DVD player and is very spacious with open plan living. The chalets have daily servicing and they also provide both pool-towels for the hot pools as well as bath towels and all linens. The camp is easy to get around and the harbour is just across the road for water sports or sightseeing and it is so good to be able to drive to the beach in your chair and right to the waters edge without sand to get stuck in. The camping amenities also include accessible facilities such as bathrooms, kitchen, games and TV room should you decide to tent it. The hot pools are not entirely accessible as far as a lift or ramp in but the pool is in set in the ground and the area and change rooms are accessible so some may be able to negotiate this. They are nice natural pools, naturally heated and cleaned and drained regularly given no chemicals are used.  Bay Palm Motel, Mt Maunganui84 Girven Road, Mount Maunganui,Phone: 07 574 5971 Fax: 07 574 5972 Reservations: 0800 666 543 Email: baypalm@clear.net.nz http://www.baypalmmotel.co.nz/ This motel is another favourite of mine despite a few minor access flaws, it gets by for me because of its location to the Bayfair shopping centre and Hillier Centre meeting room facilities for when on business or pleasure. Owners and operator of this facility are really great and always willing to help. There are 2 access units which have a portable ramp which is placed out on arrival so don’t be like me and freak out when you see the inaccessible threshold step on arrival. Both access rooms have a queen bed and a fold out sofa bed. Both units have Wet area shower, hand rails and sliding shower head. Also an emergency buzzer has been installed should anyone get into difficulty. If your like me an use a chair and find your never tall enough for the mirror, these guys have a lower mirror by the bathroom vanity and also a full length one on the inside of the wardrobe door. There is a small kitchen in both units, not hugely accessible but ok. You can also order breakfast and dinner if wanting to stay in.  Ibis Hotel, RotoruaLake End Rangiuru Street, RotoruaTel : 07 346 3999 Fax :07 347 1999 http://www.ibishotel.com/ibis/fichehotel/gb/ibi/5689/fiche_hotel.shtml This hotel has 7 accessible rooms and whether on the ground floor or any of the other floors via elevator it is all easy to get to. The rooms are standard and quite small but have all facilities needed for a comfortable stay. The bathroom with wet area shower, toilet, basin are all usable with handrails and sliding shower-hose, but again very tight and small. There is an onsite restaurant and bar so convenient for meals or entertaining friends/colleagues. Parking is under hotel so good for when it is wet as an internal lift takes you from carpark to hotel. This hotel is very reasonably priced with modern facilities, also clean, tidy and staff are very friendly and helpful. Miranda Hot Springs Holiday ParkFront Miranda RdRD 6, Miranda, 3576 Freephone: 0800-833-144 Phone:+64 07 867 3205 http://www.mirandaholidaypark.co.nz/ This park is being well invested in and upgraded constantly. We stayed in a newly built chalet opened Christmas 08 and it was beautiful. Unfortunately due to the high demand, even though we booked 3 months in advance we couldn’t get the fully accessible chalet of which there is only one. The chalet we did stay in had an amazing ramp from your private parking space which is all concreted, onto a private deck with table and chairs. Inside was 1 bedroom which has a double and a single bed, a further single bed was made up in the lounge and one of the 2 modern sofas also folded out to a double bed. We didn’t use it but there was also the ability to open an adjoining door to the next chalet, so if you had a really big group you could accommodate many. Although not accessible to roll in as I needed, the bathroom has a shower pod (small lip in) which is quite big, but the shower head is fixed. There is also a massive spa bath with jets galore and a washing machine and drier in the bathroom. The kitchen is fully equipped with gas hobs, microwave, electric fry-pan, dishwasher and large fridge/ freezer. All cutlery and bowls are supplied. Not like camping at all. The camp is not too big to get around but it is a little tough on the loose metal road to get from sites and facilities. The camp amenities are so clean and lovely large TV Rooms, Communal kitchen and dining rooms, all open plan but aluminium framing made some doorways hard to get into. The camp ablution block has 2 great accessible bathrooms and showers, one under lock and key and the other open. They both are roll-in wet area showers and they have shower commode stools provided in both bathrooms. Apart from the tennis courts, petanque pitch and bikes etc the main attraction is their immaculate thermal hot pools. It is all under a wonderful shade cloth meaning all day swimming is possible if game at 38 degrees Celsius. They are really great to get into as the pool floor ramps down into the water. If equipped with a pool chair they would be made but this is still good and there are also steps for those who prefer this. If noisy splashing kids are not your thing the pool is strictly monitored by camera and the owners are not adverse to banning kids or warning them of rules. They also have adult only time in the pool from 8-10pm.  Novotel Lakeside RotoruaLake End, Tutanekai StreetPO Box 348 Rotorua, New Zealand Ph:07 3463 888 Fax:07 3471 888 Email: H1874-re01@accor.com http://www.novotelrotorua.co.nz This is a great hotel for conferences, it does have accessible facilities but they are fairly standard. I usually am staying with an assistant when away so there was the possibility of adjoining rooms as there are only double rooms which are accessible. There was however a sofa bed in the room which we used however this made the space pretty tight when open. Nice tv and tea and coffee making facilities. The wet area shower was OK. It had the usual rails and sliding shower head. There is a restaurant on site which is really handy. They do the most amazing smorgasbord meals and the dining room is a good layout to get around in. |
