Zerb to all of you! The life of a backpacker is unusual, indeed. You never know where your next bed will be or who you will be sharing a room with. We have slept in backpacker-style rooms in every hostel we have stayed. These rooms have bunks in them–usually including four beds, but some have had six. You are forced to share rooms with people you don't know, and sometimes you don't even exchange words with them ever. This happened more often in Auckland. You are rarely on the same schedule with all of your roommates which means someone you haven't met is bound to come back early in the morning after a late-night bender. Then you leave the next morning while they are still asleep.
The hostel we stayed at in Hahei was my favorite so far. It is called Tatahi Lodge and we stayed there the Sunday night, October 25th. The Tatahi Lodge has several buildings with different types of rooms–family-style rooms, twins, doubles, and then a building with four backpacker-style rooms that share a common area and kitchen. This picture shows the grassy yard area we could use. There were two lawn chairs that Sarah and I relaxed in after we arrived, a picnic table were we ate our dinner, and a gas grill that the German people cooked their dinner on. Did I mention that there are a LOT of German travelers in New Zealand for some reason.
Here is Sarah and Nick (who is from Germany) sitting at the picnic table I spoke of. Nick was a very interesting guy. He has traveled all around New Zealand and is a hard-core wilderness backpacker. So hard-core, in fact, that he broke his calcaneus while on a tramp up a mountain in the south island. He was able to hobble to the next hut where he waited until some backpackers came. He sent them to get help while he waited a couple days. He eventually was helicoptered out. He was wearing a cast with his Teva sandal over it.
Here is a picture of our room. The beds weren't that comfortable, but we had a lot of linens and blankets at our disposal. I just liked the feel of the wooden walls and ceiling. The people working there and the other backpackers were super nice. It has also been the only hostel so far where the bathroom has been located really close to the room (just across the hall). For some reason I have had to get up and use the bathroom early in the morning several times during this trip and it sucks to have to put on shoes. Not the case at this humble hostel :)
The hostel we stayed at in Hahei was my favorite so far. It is called Tatahi Lodge and we stayed there the Sunday night, October 25th. The Tatahi Lodge has several buildings with different types of rooms–family-style rooms, twins, doubles, and then a building with four backpacker-style rooms that share a common area and kitchen. This picture shows the grassy yard area we could use. There were two lawn chairs that Sarah and I relaxed in after we arrived, a picnic table were we ate our dinner, and a gas grill that the German people cooked their dinner on. Did I mention that there are a LOT of German travelers in New Zealand for some reason.
Here is Sarah and Nick (who is from Germany) sitting at the picnic table I spoke of. Nick was a very interesting guy. He has traveled all around New Zealand and is a hard-core wilderness backpacker. So hard-core, in fact, that he broke his calcaneus while on a tramp up a mountain in the south island. He was able to hobble to the next hut where he waited until some backpackers came. He sent them to get help while he waited a couple days. He eventually was helicoptered out. He was wearing a cast with his Teva sandal over it.
Here is a picture of our room. The beds weren't that comfortable, but we had a lot of linens and blankets at our disposal. I just liked the feel of the wooden walls and ceiling. The people working there and the other backpackers were super nice. It has also been the only hostel so far where the bathroom has been located really close to the room (just across the hall). For some reason I have had to get up and use the bathroom early in the morning several times during this trip and it sucks to have to put on shoes. Not the case at this humble hostel :)
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