A very disappointing weekend. Friday 11 and Saturday 12 July 2008. Arrived to uncleared driveway covered in snow. Checkin was polite but no help was offered in carrying bags through snow to the room as you couldn’t drive any further than main reception it was quite a ‘haul’ to the Mountain Veiw units. The pools were just warm on the Friday night but the Utase-yu…waterfall was cold, not hot as it states in the maruia web site description. The meal in the restaurant was pleasant even though the open fire did little to warm the air. The food was tasty and well presented on the Friday night. The unit was basic, generally clean except for the very dirty skirting board surrounding the whole bathroom. Not only did it appear to not have been cleaned for a long time but the towel rail positon meant that your towels would hang over the dirty ledge! I also noted that the wall beside the toilet had splashes over it…another obvious that it hadn’t been thoroughly cleaned. Now onto the Saturday…yes we had a pleasant continental breakfast again in barely warm surroundings in the main building followed by a day of total lazing around reading as the rain continued to pour down constantly, and we had a very nice massage. We actually booked another for Sunday morning before we hit the road (we cancelled that though after the following disappointments). Another pleasant dinner on the Saturday night but service this time was poor with the waitress forgetting to bring one of the dishes. Off we went then to have an evening session in the pools. We hadn’t used them during the day with the rain coming down so hard. The pools were VERY COLD! Couldn’t stay in long at all so we went to the Bath House…only to find the womans inside door wouldn’t open..no luck getting in there. The mens was…barely warm again and the water from the showers was cold too! Forget their ‘traditions’ you have to get something for your money..so my lady came into the mens for about 10 minutes of luke warm natural waters (there was no-one else in there…we know why..because it wasnt very relaxing). Oh well, back to the warm unit to have wine from the little ‘juice’ glasses that are provided for your drinking pleasure…no, expensive wine just isn’t the same from a kiddies glass! Bed was comfy, just as well because we got up in the morning to no hot water in the unit at all…ok so there was a jug for coffee making…just as well that we could boil it and add to the little bathroom sink to have a good old victorian sponge bath! We told management about the water problem and while we had breakfast we assumed it would be fixed…but no such luck. So our bags were packed, the massage cancelled and the bill sorted. The bill, well again it was unpleasant to find that we had been charged for a ‘package’ weekend twice but due to our hassles they would discount one! That’s hardly called a discount. More negotiating found that we were charged considerably more for the massage we had each, we finally got the charges sorted and a discount for the lack of using the pools and unable to shower! Other problems noted…hazards everywhere..power cords through walkways, a transformer directly outside the most commonly used door to the main building sheltered from the rain by an umbrella!, signs that were incorrect, heaters in units undersized to cope with the weather, services not available in several areas, no kitchen cloth or tea towels for cleaning up the coffee bench in unit…am I supposed to use my facecloth to wipe and dry my coffee cup??? The website says the unit standards include a dining table and chairs…I didn’t see any…nor was there even a plate or knife to dine with! All the kitchen unit had was 2 coffee cups, 2 little glasses, 2 tsps, fly spray and a rubbish bin…oh and a fridge that we had to prop the front up so our wine bottles didn’t roll out when you opened the door. On returning, I got on the web site to see just what inspired me to book into this ‘resort’ in the first place…only to discover so many misleading statements. Not to mention that the package we were given but not actually what I booked included private spa time…that wasn’t even mentioned to us during our stay…the 3 course meal…well again when we ordered that wasn’t mentioned. We thought we were paying for everying individually and only had mains and a side dish…yet we were put under a 3 course package? Obviously this is a very badly run destination that we won’t be returning to nor recommending. TARGET on TV would have a wonderful time picking on this place.