Point Break Backpackers is in a suburb of Christchurch and is much farther from the actual downtown Christchurch area than is advertised. But it's very easy to get to Point Break Backpackers from Downtown Christchurch -- just catch the correct bus at the Bus Exchange and it drops you off within a five-minute walk of the hostel.
During the day, the location of the hostel is great, with a lot of fish and chip places nearby as well as banks and little shops. Point Break is also extremely close to the beach (less than a five-minute walk). There's a gorgeous beach with tons of surfers and a great, huge library with a huge pier where you can watch the surfers up close or go fishing. During our stay, there was a sand art competition on the beach. The atmosphere at night around the hostel neighborhood is not so great. Most all the shops close down except the fish and chip places and it is very deserted and not very welcoming.
However, if you choose to stay in at night, Point Break has an amazing TV room with quite a few DVDs to choose from and cable TV with tons of channels and comfy couches! The hostel on the inside looks brand new, or at least it is kept clean and kept up very well. This hostel has the best furniture we've seen in any hostels. The rooms are sized adequately but does not have individual luggage storage in each room.
There is thirty minutes a day of free internet inside the cafe downstairs (the cafe is also very convenient with a lot of good food!). The staff is extremely helpful -- the husband owner actually carried my heavy luggage for me up to my room! The bathrooms are not as new looking and as clean as the rest of the hostel and have very limited lighting. Point Break advertises a free breakfast but all it really is is a big basket of cereal (no milk provided). The kitchen could have been a lot cleaner!
Overall the look of the hostel on the inside definitely exceeded our expectations. However, beware. The hostel is absolutely freezing -- we don't think they have a heating system in the building. Make sure to bring extra blankets with you. We luckily didn't have a roommate one night so we took all the blankets from both beds as well as wore just about all our clothing to bed -- and we were just barely warm enough. The windows are horribly insulated so you can feel the wind from outside coming right in. This also means that the bathrooms are extremely cold, especially when you get out of the shower. The bathroom has electric hand dryers -- if you get really cold, go stand under them for awhile and you will warm up at least a little.
-- Exclusive Hostelz.com Review
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