Location The Quest is located in the north shore suburb of Albany. We only chose it because we have relatives living in Long Bay, whom we had come to visit. However, if you’re coming as a tourist to see the sights of Auckland, then this may not be the ideal place to be. To get to the city, for example, we would take an Uber to Devonport, and from there, it’s a short (approx. 20 mins) ferry ride into the city, but all up, for Uber and ferry fares it could cost between $NZ40-50 and take an hour and a half depending on traffic and the waiting time for the ferry. There might be a bus option but we didn’t investigate that. When it came time to leave Auckland, the cost of an Uber to the airport, leaving Quest at 1.30pm on a weekday, was $NZ85. The receptionist told us that despite the out of the way location, the Quest is popular with business travellers and that did make sense, because the Westfield shopping centre is nearby, and there’s a virtual satellite suburb surrounding the Westfield, with dozens of other businesses, shops, cafes and restaurants. The other reason, I guess people would stay here, is if, like us, they are visiting relatives who live in one of the outer north shore suburbs like Torbay, Long Bay, Browns Bay etc, but if I came here purely as a tourist, I would choose to be in the city. Despite its small size, the traffic in Auckland could be pretty horrendous at times, which just adds to your taxi or Uber costs. There isn’t much in the near vicinity of the hotel, apart from a few little shops and restaurants. But the aforementioned Westfield can be easily reached by Uber, or even on foot, although it isn’t a particularly pleasant walk, alongside the highway and it takes about 20-25 minutes. Most of the time, when visiting Westfield, we choose to Uber there and back, and that generally costs a modest $NZ8 or $9 each way. Apartment A comfy little lounge-room was the main feature of the apartment, with a wooden dining table with steel legs, four solid wooden chairs also with steel legs, a small desk and chair with a strong desk light and enough power points to charge all your appliances. There were two comfy lounge chairs in rather dark, sombre colours of olive green and brown, and far too many cushions for such a small space, so they continuously had to be rotated around to make room to sit. The smart TV had local channels as well as YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, pretty much everything you would need from a TV, including a fancy remote with a laser pointer. There was a little coffee table and the whole place was carpeted except for the bathroom and kitchenette, which was just as well, because despite it being mid summer, we found Auckland a cold place and on some days, temps got as low as 18 degrees, complete with wind and rain. Fortunately, the reverse cycle air con worked well, so we had it on heat at 27 degrees most of the time and that at least helped to keep the place warm. I don’t think that we ever used the cooling cycle.
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