B and B in Nelson. Luxurious (Bed and Breakfast or B & B) accommodation in Nelson, New Zealand: boutique tourist lodging guest house with BB meal plan accommodations

AMBER HOUSE - at the centre!™
Bed and Breakfast Guest House (B&B) in Nelson city centre, New Zealand

Blue Room

Our Blue Room is also on the upper floor with plenty of hanging space in the fitted wardrobe which contains a digital safe. There is a two seater couch, fitted carpet, a large work desk and swivel chair, one cordless, direct dial DECT phone and the highest speed internet connection (available in Nelson from Telecom NZ) to use with your laptop or ours included in the tariff.

You may choose whatever you want cooked for breakfast (within reason) or a "continental" buffet type breakfast - both served in the guest dining room downstairs.

The Blue Room has a Daikin, reverse cycle air-conditioning unit and argon gap, noise insulating, double glazing.

Access to and from the Blue Room is either via its double glazed French Doors that open to the balcony or via its long and narrow en suite shower, wash hand basin and WC compartment. (We did not wish to move the original walls and room proportions of Amber House, so we have formed en suite ablutions for this bedroom by taking space from an adjacent landing.)

Satellite and Teletext TV programmes are available, together with 23 other local and terrestrial digital television channels of which three are currently transmitted in high definition to the large LCD TV.

This large LCD High Definition TV will also show your movies, play your music MP3 files and display your photos (up to a maximum size of 15,360 x 8,640 pixels) when you connect your portable drive to the USB connector at the right hand side and then select "MEDIA.P" on this flat screen TV's remote controller.
A small safe, with a combination you can set yourself, is provided for your valuables. There is also an alarm clock radio and hairdryer.

Usually the Blue Room has one Queen-sized bed with an orthopaedic mattress - but another single bed can be carried up the stairs and added upon 24 hours notice (and for an extra charge, if less than 3 guests are booked).

Place your order with Mila the previous afternoon for a complimentary cooked breakfast of your choice served in the guest dining room downstairs the following morning. Help yourself to the breakfast buffet and coffee, tea, Ovaltine, hot chocolate, Milo, fruit juice, spring water, biscuits, etc., in the downstairs dining room at any time. Take fruit from the bowl whenever you fancy.

Laptop Computer

A black, HP Compaq 6715S laptop computer is located in the right hand shelf of the large work desk in the Blue Room.
When you remove it from its stowage position, please be careful not to disconnect it from its power cord (which is about 1.8m long). There is one central catch located on the front edge and the silver, START button is at the back left corner of the keyboard.

This laptop currently runs the Linux Ubuntu 11.10 distro and, after you log on as "BB guest" (ask us for the relevant password), will automatically load the Firefox 9.01 web browser. If everything goes according to plan, this computer will automatically connect to the "Amber House" wireless network.

When you have finished, simply close the lid and our computer should return to "sleep". (Our computer will also "sleep" if left unused for 30 minutes on mains power, 10 minutes without mains power.)

If you wish to use your own device on our wireless network, please:
a) locate our "Amber House" wireless network on your device and select it
b) when your device requests a password, hand your device to a member of the Amber family so they can enter a confidential sticky password before handing the device back to you.

Service

We do also offer room service.

Room service is available at a moderate extra charge payable to the cook in cash when she arrives with your meal. If you've paid the Blue Room tariff and wish to have your complimentary breakfast served al fresco on the East balcony so that you can see the sun rise over the Centre of New Zealand rather than in the dining room downstairs - just say the word and pay the moderate extra charge when it arrives.
Blue Room guests can also order (for a moderate charge) other meals and snacks prepared and served at their convenience.

Rather than ringing the "School Bell"if you need us and we're not visible, please instead press the electric door bell push just to the left (when standing outside) of Amber House's front door.

This small bell push wirelessly activates five different chimes located in the front hallway, upstairs landing, main kitchen, Garage and the cottage at the back of the section 200 feet away.
[If you need us at a time when these chimes are likely to disturb other guests, please use the cordless phone in your room: dial 539 0605 (no need to use the South Island area code of 03) to initiate a free local call and your call will be automatically diverted free of charge to the family's cellular (or mobile) number of +64-21-202 4961.]

Please visit this page for information on our call charges...

We'll try and respect your privacy and will try and come into your rooms to empty the waste-paper basket, etc while you are out during the day - unless, of course, you tell us not to.

Electrical Sockets

The Blue Room is well provided with available electrical outlets for your laptop, phone charger, etc - so we ask you not to disturb any electrical arrangements that you find already in place. (An additional service fee may be payable if you disconnect or switch off - even temporarily - our phone system, satellite receiver, alarm clock, TV, etc.)

The Blue Room has 7 (seven) 230 volt, 10 amp, RCD protected, australasian style, electric sockets available for you to use. Double, switched sockets are positioned 400mm above the floor:
a) just above the bedside table to the North of the Queen sized bed
b) on the Northern exterior wall, just to the left of the large work desk (lower socket of this pair is already in use for our HD LCD TV)
c) on the Eastern exterior wall, to the right and just behind the large work desk (both sockets of this pair are already in use and obscured by the left hand curtain of the window)
d) on the East wall of the closet, to the right of the heated towel rail and just outside the entrance to the shower compartment
e) on the West interior wall of the room, near to the Western clothes closet

There are also low current (Maximum 20VA) 230 volt Australasian/European and 110 volt USA style shaver sockets above the mirror in the shower compartment. Please do not use high power equipment such as hair dryers or curlers in the shower compartment - this is extremely dangerous and life threatening!

A normal power, earthed adaptor for European, British square 3pin and flat pin USA style plugs is also available on request. Please note, if you borrow this adaptor, that it does NOT convert voltage from New Zealand's standard 230 volts so it should NOT be used on equipment designed only to take 110 volts!

There are also two water resistant, normal power, sockets at the southern end of the balcony (behind a waterproof cover) that may be used on special request after their design and use has been demonstrated by a family member.

VERY IMPORTANT: The large, German made, "tilt and turn" window in the East wall of the Blue Room cost more than $8000 to install (this window is double glazed with argon in the gap and coated with 2 molecules of Gold to reduce infra red emissions) and needs special care when opening or closing.
Please ensure that all of the window is completely and entirely seated in the window frame before you attempt to rotate the handle to the down position to lock it. If you feel any resistance to rotating the handle - STOP immediately before you damage the Austrian precision-engineered mechanism. If you ignore this instruction and carelessly damage our window, you will be charged appropriately!

Alarm Clock Radio and iPod/iPhone Dock

On the bedside cabinet is an alarm clock radio that will also charge your iPod or iPhone.

This Sony ICF-C05iP DREAM MACHINE will wake you to either a local FM pre-set station (15 are pre-set in Nelson) or to a buzzer or to music from your inserted iPod or iPhone 3GS. (The iPod or iPhone adaptors are stored in the top drawer of the Gold Room's desk.)

This Sony DREAM MACHINE has extendable snooze and adjustable sleep functions and a digital tuner and dimmable display.

Full instruction for this Sony DREAM MACHINE can be viewed as a PDF file here, but you turn the radio ON by pressing the "FM" button and OFF by pressing the "iPod & iPhone" button.

Setting the alarm

Setting the Radio alarm

Setting the Buzzer alarm

Setting the alarm for iPod

Our Quirks

It would be a good idea to hang your towels out to dry on the rotary drying frame in the back garden first thing in the morning as the sunny Nelson climate usually ensures they'll be bone dry within a couple of hours.
[Less environmental stress than switching the heated towel rail on, eh? Kiwis value their "clean and green" image so we also ask that you turn off your lights, TV, stereo and air conditioning unit when you go out.]
We'll probably take both towels and your washing back to your room if you forget... Ask us for beach towels if that's where you're going.

We don't usually turn down beds unless you are physically handicapped and will change the bed linen every 3 or 4 days.
If you do have an accident and need bed linen changing earlier, don't hesitate to say!

We don't allow guests to use our front loading automatic washing machine as the various dials and buttons can be complicated to explain to guests and they would not be covered by our insurance. If you do need more than just a few items washed with our own load, we charge similar prices to a service wash in a launderette: $7 per washing machine load.
You'll need to hang your items on the rotary washing line and take them down again yourself unless you bribe us with winsome words and pleasing smiles or recipes (grin). We charge $12 dollars per hour (or part) of dryer time if you need to be wasteful and use our electric dryer rather than the rotary clothes line.

We keep the fruit bowl and biscuit jar well stocked in the guests' dining room so just help yourself. In summer you can also pick your own strawberries and cherry tomatoes in the back garden on the way back from bringing in your towels or washing... We don't do ironing unless you're going to a wedding or special occasion (20 dollars per hour or part) but can provide you with a steam iron and board and mending materials.

"...The real plus on the service side, is that you will be staying with hosts who really know their neighborhood and can give you the best independent advice about places to eat, shop and visit, unlike hotel staff who don't always live locally and don't know about these things or perhaps get some kind of kick-back for referrals. Wouldn't it be great having your own local source of up-to-the-minute insider information about what's going on? Your hosts can give you useful nuggets of information, such as the many delightful specialty shops...(and) help you make the most of your trip, when time is at a premium..."

We would rather be modest and let our Guest Book speak for that aspect.

We would like to close by mentioning our beds and our breakfasts.
Our beds are comfortable and will ensure you get a good night's sleep. The Blue Room has orthopaedic mattresses and guests staying in this room should ensure that they set the alarm clock radio if they have a early start. You should also not forget to tell us the previous afternoon or early evening what you would like cooked the next morning since, within reason, we'll serve you whatever you fancy for breakfast if you've booked the Blue Room.

AMBER HOUSE - at the centre!™

Webpage version 61j, 4 March 2013