The Thorold Country House is only an easy 1.5hr drive from NZ international airport and is very welcome after a long flight from Hong Kong. The hosts Wendy and Gary were very welcoming and couldn't do enough for us. They are very knowledgable about the area and gave us some useful local info.
We stayed in the cottage which consists of two double rooms, each with doors leading out to a secluded garden and shared pool, and a kitchen and lounge area. The beds were very clean and comfortable and the pool was clean and very welcome.
Wendy does a great breakfast (the best we've had in two weeks of travelling round NZ). I would recommend it to friends and family upon arrival or just a nice place to stop off and have a rest in the peace and quiet of the countryside. It is off a main road but you can't hear it at all and the location is perfect for visiting the Coromandel Peninsular.

Upon reading the review posted by 4oystercatcher, we feel compelled to right a wrong. A wrong perception, that is.Our family has been holidaying at Thorold Country House for 3 years now, the same time each year. From the beginning we have never been disappointed, it is a break away we look forward to every year for various reasons. Wendy and Gary are the most hospitable hosts you will ever find, they are welcoming, accomodating and their property is beautiful. They are sincere and interested in what they do. It isn't just a business to them and it shows. We stay in the Cottage, as did 4oystercatcher and can truthfully tell you it is so quiet, peaceful and serene, we have never heard noises from the road or anywhere, only the occasional bleat from a lamb/sheep, which is to be expected and is part of the experience we expect(the website shows lambs/sheep on the property). How anyone would think the pool is heated is beyond me, as if it was, it would say so on the website, which it doesn't. It is definately not unclean, Gary spends a lot of time making sure it is kept in wonderful condition. Our 7yr old daughter lives in the pool when we stay, if it was unclean, why would we allow that to happen??? The Thorold website doesn't take 'nonrefundable deposits' either - Our experience has been that when booking everyone is asked to give credit card details as a security measure but nothing is ever credited against the card. If you don't have a CC then another option is you can give a 30% CASH deposit - not unusual. We also don't find Thorold to be overpriced. What we pay is great value for the benefits we get; A full (home cooked) fresh breakfast every morning with great conversation, privacy, our own fully equipped kitchen, our own BBQ area, a covered carpark, the use of the pool, a DVD player, hair dryer and the bedrooms have beautiful dressers and wardrobes to use - it is literally a home away from home. It seems the benefits on offer at Thorold weren't what 4oystercatcher were actually wanting, it is a shame that the outcome has been a bad review of a fantastic establishment. We highly recommend staying here and endorse all the other positive comments posted on this site about Thorold Country House. We will be back next year, as usual :-)

We were grateful to be allowed early check in after arriving in NZ just that day it was quite kind. The place is in a lovely setting but you can hear road noises from the road below and the pool although relaxing to look at is nothing I'd want to swim in. It was unheated and not very clean.

The accommodations were clean but overpriced. The bed was great as was breakfast. There is a two night minimum and we were told the rooms were booked and all that was available was the higher priced cottage. We stayed there only to discover the next day we were the only guests as they were doing some renovations. The hosts were helpful about the area, one was born in NZ, and the other a recent immigrant from the UK.

Their ad said they accept VISA but in actuality they are not set up do so. We had to go into town and go to a bank to get cash at a cost a $30 NZD and over a half hour. They tried to tell me they were a small operation but I found this to be very strange, especially since they hadn't informed us of this AND had accepted a credit card as a nonrefundable deposit. I made my opinion clear it wasn't very business like and they pleaded they were a small operation.

Overall it was okay but overpriced and not a place I would recommend due to the road noise and their approach to payment that seemed quite less than professional in the year 2011. An inconvenience such as this unexpected on your way to start a new day in a new place left a bad taste in my mouth.

A very nice experience. One of our highlights was feeding the sheep one evening with Gary and hearing his stories about how they were named. My only complaint is not having a coffee pot in the room - but even that was taken care of by Gary. He made sure we had plenty of coffee. The house is in a beautiful and relaxing setting and we really enjoyed our visit and heartily recommend Thorold House!