Stayed here for two nights. Hotel decorated in timber like an African Lodge with lots of African themed accessories. Staff excellent. Bar and restaurant good. Breakfast good. The room was a little on the small side. We had no shelf or anywhere to put anything apart from in our case. Bed only a double which we found cramped and we... more

We stayed here for 1 night enroute between Napier and Auckland touring around New Zealand, in March 2009. The hotel is on the lakefront, nice room, not very large but had everything you might need. There was a funky African theme throughout the hotel which caused me to go round the whole time with “Circle of Life” from the Lion... more

Stayed here for two nights in January. Our initial room was on the ground floor and the window would not close securely. Went right back to the front desk and they immediately upgraded to a lake view on the 2nd floor at no extra cost. This actually helped because there was no air-conditioning in the rooms and when it got... more

My expectation was that the hunting lodge theme would probably be a tacky disaster but I was presently surpised at how nice a place this was. Yes, the rooms are a bit small and don't have air-con. My initial thoughts on opening the door and seeing it were that it was a bit of a mistake. But it was comfortable... more

Good location, staff is very nice and helpful but rooms are small and can be noisy especially in summer as there is no air conditioning in rooms and you have to open the windows. more

We chose this hotel because of the breakfast deal advertised on the hotels website for the the winter, & I recognised it as the hotel that had the "safari" theme we had driven past on the way to the ski fields. As we live a couple of hours away from Taupo we thought this would be a fun weekend break... more

I thought the Copthorne was a little treasure with some cute quirks. The hotel owners were very sweet, we were there for a car race and had quite a few of us in the hotel and they were very accommodating. The rooms were a little small, but what the heck are you doing spending time in your room? Your in... more

The place is now known as the Copthorne, though most people still refer to it as the Caboose. The room was tiny ( obviously used to be a large room that had been split in two). Fixtures and fittings were tired and broken - hooks on the door that just rotated when you hung coats on them and dumped them... more

Somehow the African Train theme of the Caboose Lodge works, possibly because of the strong British background of European settlers to New Zealand. Located on Lake Terrace, the dining room and lobby have great views of Lake Taupo and the mountains in the distance. It is a fairly long walk to the main shopping and restaurant area, and since my... more