Stayed here for our first 2 nights in NZ. The person who ran it is no longer there so I think their standard has slipped and is certainly not worth the 5 stars we were hoping for! We had the room with the balcony and although it is a lovely room there are no curtains which work. Also, there is a glass window down into the breakfast area which allows lots of noise and light into your room as again no curtain. No one with any local knowledge to talk to. Cindy, from China, who made our breakfast is lovely but has only been there 2 mths. Good breakfast but all too expensive for what we got.

Location
The B&B is located in a quiet and respectable neighbourhood. To be honest we underestimated Christchurch’s size. It was more than 30 minutes with the car to the airport and more than 30 minutes to walk to the city centre. A Countdown supermarket is just around the corner (if you have a description; it’s not that obvious).

Bathroom
I loved the pictures on their website immediately. This is why I booked although there was no room with ensuite bathroom available. Based on the information on the website there are 3 rooms with ensuite bathroom and Queen Room 2 which shares the bathroom with the single room. I thought to share the bathroom with just 1 other person would be okay (We had to drive to the airport the next morning and couldn’t risk a delay caused by a bathroom queue.)
This proved to be wrong. I don’t know how many people shared the bathroom but definitely MORE than just 2 rooms. We were having breakfast with the girl from the single room when other male guests used it. Furthermore, you have to cross a long hallway to reach the bathroom.
The bathroom itself was very spacious. It was a bit difficult to shower without flooding the floor.

The Gingerbread Lodge
The house is really as beautiful as on the pictures with colourful glass windows, great wooden floors and old-fashioned decorations. We shortly met our host Nathan, a young guy, who seemed quite friendly. The Gingerbread Lodge is not like many other B&Bs where retired couples invite guests into their house after the children have moved out. It was more a commercial place where breakfast etc. is managed by an employee. The legendary Miki had an accident, so another girl took her place, and breakfast and all the rest was nothing special at all.

For 120 NZ$ I would have expected a bit more.

This was our first time that we ever stayed in a B&B and we were quite delighted with our experience. The room was well maintained, clean and neat. But it was relatively smaller than expected but that wasn't much of an issue. Nathan and Cindy were good host and we got along pretty well with them. Breakfasts were also great. I would highly recommend this place if you looking for an affordable and neat place to stay in Christchurch.