Grand Mercure Puka Park Resort — Hotel in North Island

AMAZING!!!! 10/10 IGN WOULD STAY AGAIN!!!

Me and my partner's family stayed here for 3 days and 2 nights for our grandma's 90th bday. It was amazing.

The venue is amazing absolutely incredible views beautifully interwoven with nature. The resort is surrounded by so many trees it's really quite the site.

Rooms: we stayed in room 46 and my in-laws stayed in rooms 43-44. The rooms are a great mix of lodge like and modern with exposed wood giving a lodging feel while also having heated tiles, carpet and modern rooms. Rooms come with a stand alone bath and one walk in shower in the other.

There is a laundry machine, dryer and a dishwasher and fridge in the first half of the room. And an ac unit. There is one wall mounted tv that can be extended and swiveled that also comes with a sky box too so we watched nrl amd the paris Olympics. There is also an electric stove and microwave for all your foodly needs. Beds are really comfy and have plenty of pillows although real low to the ground. There is also touch lamps beside the beds. There is also a iron and fold out ironing table that makes it perfect for washing, drying and ironing clothes.

There is also a comfy couch that can be used as a spare bed! There is plenty of sockets for devices (did some work from bed) and the resort has wifi that requires no passowrd and it's quite fast (streamed shows while i was free).

The deck area is nice and the sound proofing between the connecting rooms is good aswell (walls aren't paper thin).

The breakfast is pretty standard with the regular assortments of basic buffet foods but the staff restock the food lighting fast so if you're a huge eater they'll replace before you can finish.

There is a gym, pool, tennis court, event area, lounge and dining area and a happy hour bar.

Event venue: we held a 90th bday at the event venue right next to the bar. There were over 60 of us present with kids, elderly and teens and we were accommodated perfectly. They covered the seats in white and we were prepared a 3 course meal. The venue had nice lights hanging from across the whole ceiling and was well lit and very welcoming. Food was amazing nice and succulent and great proportions even for big eaters. (Like myself) food was prepped fast and steps were not skipped in the prep either. Veggies were fresh too! Bar was great and had a good amount of top shelf alcohol at reasonable prices.

Best part was the staff!!!!! The staff that served us was amazing, they catered to all our needs. They understood how to look after the elderly and help kids. They were amazing down to earth people that also had some banter. They were very sweet and treated us all equally (even the heavily intoxicated people...)

Theyvmade it easy for people to order drinks and helped us put on the bday. To Simon, Amelia and Deepak you guys were awesome and made our big night a blast. Thank you so much!

Only con: the elevation of the resort is quite steep. But if you dial 700 or ask staff they will hastily ready you a buggy that can carry everyone (even drunk) to their rooms and deliver your luggage. So use it if you're not a cardio junky. But the venue is great for walks real good incline if you're up for it.

Couldn't Rate the resort higher and will definitely be staying there more often. If you are here for any occasion with multiple people make sure you stay here. It's phenomenal and I can't wait to comeback and do it all over again but for an even longer stay. Thank...

Nice location, peaceful, friendly staff and good views. Pool was kept clean. The bed was comfortable, dinner on the evening was good, and the bread in particular. Wife is Veg/ Vegan, and the menu was limited but the Chef offered to make a veg pasta. The menu sadly didn’t change at all. There were about five main meals, one vegetarian. There were a few veggie sides, which were tasty. The unfortunate part was that the menu never changed. I asked if there would be any changes, but sadly it’s only changed every 3 months. So if you’re staying a few nights it gets repetitive and so we dined at one of the restaurants in the local village for the rest of our stay. If the restaurant had a menu that changed each night or theme nights, I’m sure they would be booked out, like the restaurant in the village. Breakfast was very average. The creamy mushrooms were obviously from the creamy mushroom pasta dinner the night before and night after and so on…and used again for breakfast. As my wife is vegetarian and has strictly no meat or contamination with it, she couldn’t each any of the hot vegetarian breakfast food on the buffet. For example, the hash browns were put out next to the bacon and the utensils would be put in a shared area under the food. The hash browns tastes of bacon fat. Noticed the sausage was out with tomatoes too. People used any utensils and mixed them and the food was contaminated. Extra thought must be used from kitchen staff to keep veg together, cook the veg on separate hot plates to meat and away from the meat if possible. One evening the bread served with the veg pasta tasted of meat. The staff were kindly honest and apologetic explaining it had been grilled on the same hot plate as the steaks, and replaced the bread. But this is the sort of food hygiene that should be avoided- if you have allergies, I would err on the side of caution based on my wife’s experience as a veggie. Free laundry option was a great idea, especially for families. But the machine had a bad moisture smell. We used it but our clothes didn’t smell very good after. Think it just needs a cleaning tablet put in to give it a good clean and that should fix the issue. On a positive again, there was a good drink selection, lots of wine to choose from as well as a few bar snacks (limited but does the trick). However I never got to try the truffle fries, as the chef never had the truffle oil throughout our whole 5 nights stay, so couldn’t try them. It was really nice sitting on the terrace off the bar having a drink and admiring the view. Lounge area was clearly original from 70’s / 80’s which had a quirky homely feel, but was a bit old and rough around the edges. There was an old sofa with rips and tears which I wouldn’t look out of place on the hard rubbish day outside the house in the street. If you could add kids board games/ books to the book case I’m sure that would be welcomed by families with younger kids. Three games but missing pieces and a bit too advanced for little ones. All in all we had a nice enough time, enjoyed the views, pool, staff were very friendly but it wasn’t outstanding. Room for improvement especially on the food...

This hotel was an absolutely wonderful way to kick-off our honeymoon in NZ! You drive up the winding road into a forest of trees, and suddenly you arrive at a warm and lovely lodge that serves as the reception. We were greeted by Antonio who helped us throughout the stay. What we loved most about this place was how much of a personal touch they give you from start to finish, from the manager to the waiter. He warned us right away that the WiFi only works in the lobby/lounge, so be warned that you won't have it in your room, but we were more than happy to disconnect when we were in our rooms anyway. Everything we needed he and everyone else was happy to help with. The same people who check you in are happy to give suggestions of where to travel, print Google directions, drive you to your room in a little golf cart, bring you back if you don't want to walk. Full-service and they do it all with a smile on their faces. I wish I could remember everyones' names to give them a personal shout-out, but I know there was Antonio as well as Matthias who each drove us around many times and helped with any maintenance that was needed.

The restaurant was fantastic, my wife is a foodie and claims that her poached eggs were the best she's ever had, and they were even sweet enough to greet us with complimentary cocktails for our honeymoon. Really top notch place in large part thanks to their service.

The room was only a 2 minute walk from the lobby, in a separated chalet, but it was adorable, completely surrounded by trees and you could rarely hear anyone around, so it really felt like a rustic chalet in the forest, but with running water, heat and a TV if you really wanted. :) Happy to leave them a top review as it started us off with...