KiwiPaka YHA Hostel

Friendly staff and Gorgeous natural hot pool!
An enjoyable stay. The staff were extremely helpful. One even drove us to our Maori experience when their bus service let us down! The hot tub is definitely a big plus, as anywhere else you have to clean your wallets out to experience the heat.

Noisy, dirty, unfriendly. Avoid!
Second stay in four years, still one of the worst. I thought things must have improved, but not. The bins overflow, there are just two fridges, one of which is warm inside, and no freezer. Two of the six cookers weren't working and if you want cutlery, you have to wait in line for a pack which you have to return immediately. The polyester sheets have holes in, the "chalet" walls are thinner than paper. Add food theft, excessive noise (car horns, puking until about 3 a.m.), and rude staff, and you have KiwiPaka. A real let-down to the usually good YHA name.

I didn't even bother staying here one night! we had requested a double en-suite and they gave us dorms (even although we had paid the price of the double). the bathrooms were the worst i had seen in all my travels and it was a hell of a hike from town centre. Do not recommend.

Horrible service and standards. I stayed in a twin private chalet -- chalets being the most expensive (assumed best) accommodation on the premises. The shower had no pressure and was either freezing or boiling. I asked the reception staff to fix it. When I returned to the hostel in the evening it wasn't fixed, a lady at reception said she sent the maintenance guy over and the shower's working fine and I just need to learn how to use it. When I said I've been using showers for twenty-five years, she replied she's done her utmost best, that she knows nothing about showers, and if the maintenance guy says it's ok there's nothing more she can do (although she never went to check herself). The ceilings are paper thin and sleeping is impossible when people walk or make noise upstairs. The kitchen's much too small for the amount of people staying there, and unlike normal hostels that provide all the utensils and cutlery, you get a tray that you have to pick up and return every time you want to eat something, but, the people at reception will continue answering the phones and doing work on the computer even if you've been standing there for ten minutes and you were there before the phone rang, they'll just keep answering phone calls and you won't get a chance to speak until the phone stops ringing, which is quite ironic as I've been told to call back later when I originally called to book. I decided not to stay a further night and the staff sneered at me when I was getting my key deposit back. Do not stay here, there are so many other hostels in Rotorua.

This place is awful, tiny rooms, very loud music which goes on until the early hours, and very unhelpful staff! I do not recommend this place at all!

I have stayed at this hostel on 2 separate occassions. Once in 2002, and one in 2004. Both times were great experiences. The staff is both helpful and polite, and ready to help to book activities or direct you somewhere in town. I found the location to be great, for it is on the edge of town, yet the walk to town was a nice little stroll through a field or the sulfur ponds to town. The rooms are simple, yet clean and decent. I've stayed in both a private A-frame chalet and a four-person dorm room, my only complaint being that they were quite cold during the winter. However, the hostel has a nice kitchen and common area, restaurant, bar and heating tub. It's a nice place to stay if in Rotorua.

It's Great!!! I stayed here with my school trip. It is the most friendly accommodation I have been to. It has a great setting and they make you feel so comfortable. There is plenty of places to chill. It's the best!!!

I stayed one night and left!!! The place is a fair walk from the town center and it felt isolated — also the rooms are very dark and dingy. A lot of school groups stay here so it can be very noisy. The bar is ok but very expensive. What really ticked me off though was the way you had to collect and take responsibility for an entire tray of cutlery and crockery if you simply wanted a cup of tea — there are no cooking/eating utensils in the kitchen. Maybe they have a problem with theft but it was just irritating. The showers were awful and the beds were really uncomfortable. I wouldn't recommend this place at all.

Do not stay in this hostel if you value your belongings. My boyfriend and I stayed here on the ground floor and were having a rest in the evening. We woke up to find our door wide open and later found that his camera had been stolen by some Maori kids. Apparently they are widely known by police, and considering this the security was diabolical. There rooms are tiny — there is not enough room to swing a cat! Showers are also abysmal — it was freezing cold and barely any water came round. Worst hostel I have ever stayed in.

Its great location is the only good point about this hostel. The rooms are minute and very noisy if you are on the ground floor. Also, kitchen security needs to be examined, as we had our shopping stolen (along with six other couples' shopping).

We stayed here Dec. 7-9, 2004, and thought the bathrooms were unclean, the kitchens very small for the amount of people there and, worst of all, we had our shopping stolen from one of the freezers (along with 7 other people). Our room was minute and the noise from the room above did not enable much sleep.

Nice place. It's a little bit out of town but you can cut through the park and see all the weird bubbling mud pools and stuff. This place seemed really popular with school groups, so it was a bit of a pain having the little nutters running around slamming doors all night. But this is not a bad place to explore Rotorua from.

THE best hostel I stayed at during my four months in New Zealand! My room was actually quite big, there's a bar onsite, and a huge hot tub/pool! It was clean and comfortable — it felt more like a hotel!

The rooms are too small and the facilities are not that great. The staff are very friendly but the place needs a re-vamp.

The staff are very nice. The facilities are not that good though and the rooms are very small. Quite an old fashioned place. It needs a bit of a re-vamp I think.