The MN Hosteller

hostelling new zealand

By Patrick Kulisheck

You know you have arrived in a place that really caters to hostellers, or "backpackers" as we are called down under, when the first discount you get for being one is on the bus that takes you from the airport to the city center. And it drops you off right at the hostel. www.airbus.co.nz. This must be Auckland, New Zealand then.

For a country that is only about the size of Minnesota and Iowa combined, has a population of four and a half million people and only four real cities its surprising to learn that New Zealand has half as many HI hostels as the entire United States. Fifty, to be exact, and staying at a YHA hostel (that's the popular name for them in New Zealand and Australia) is a real treat.

Self proclaimed adrenaline capital of the world: Queenstown, New Zealand .

There are two YHAs in downtown Auckland, only a block apart, and both of them have the many features that are common to all of HI's hostels in New Zealand. Besides booking you in for the night, the front desk also sells many of the necessities needed by hostellers (toothpaste, sodas, water etc.), phone cards and postcards as well as internet cards that work at any YHA in the country. More importantly they also sell bookings and admissions to just about every activity and attraction around, most of them at a deep discount. There are spacious common areas, TV rooms, large dining rooms and well stocked kitchens for hostellers to use.

New Zealand hostels do allow the consumption of alcohol in the hostels but prohibit hostellers from being intoxicated. The bedrooms are usually four or six bedded with key card access. The New Zealanders appear to have an aversion to bunk beds as most of the rooms feature single beds. One drawback is the lack of lockers in the bedrooms although there are usually pay lockers located somewhere in the hostel. Laundry facilities and bicycle storage is also provided.

Queenstown's YHA Lakefront Hostel - Photo by Patrick Kulisheck

There are three companies that provide extensive transportation services to get backpackers from hostel to hostel. They are the Kiwi Experience, www.kiwiexperience.com, the Magic bus, www.magicbus.co.nz and Stray, www.straytravel.com. They run different circuits around the islands, picking backpackers up at their hostels in one town or city and then dropping them off at the hostels in the next. They also stop at several attractions along the way. These companies book discounted activities for their riders such as skydiving and bungy jumping and will even book your next hostel for you as well if you haven't done so already.

As with all hostels, you'll meet people from all over the world in New Zealand hostels. When I stayed there I met many Brits, Canadians and Australians - but very few fellow Americans. Blame it on the weak dollar, perhaps. There were also many folks from Asia, people from countries you would have never encountered a few years ago - such as Vietnamese. And as always, there were plenty of Germans.

A trip to New Zealand is something everyone should do. Friendly locals, fabulous scenery, and two small islands which one can easily manage in three weeks time.

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