Beach House Backpackers

I called for a reservation, but was told owner was out of country for the time we wanted. Re-routed our whole visit to NZ, so my wife could carve jade with the owner. Called back and found out they had space for the new arrival dates. Asked to be booked into a double room for two nights. This was eighteen days before arrival. Everything was ok, owner said he'd put us in book. Eighteen days later, we arrive only to find out the hostel is full, and our reservation has not been held. Somehow, we were not in the book. Find another place to stay, still want to carve, so ask about that. Well, owner does all the carving, we just tell him what we want. Then we get to sand the piece to shiny (the grunt work). Plus, the prices are nearly equal to shops. Found out from someone else in town that owner is not well-thought-of by the general public. Glad we ended up not staying and we bought a nice piece of pounamu (jade) in a shop from a nice and helpful woman.

I visited here in September 2003. It was a fantastic, relaxing place right on the beach. I had been travelling New Zealand for several weeks, and when we found this place we stayed an extra day because it felt just like a beach holiday from when you were a kid.