Hopewell Hostel

As Maaike hasn’t stopped raving about how wonderful the hostel she is WOOFING in is, I thought that I should check it out and see the truth of the matter.

The hostel is called Hopewell, and is set in native bush deep in the Marlborough Sounds. To get there you can drive two odd hours to the end of a road – or (as I did) catch a water taxi to their jetty. It was a 50 minute taxi ride from Havelock – or a 40 minute (but two taxis’) from Picton.

I’m not quite sure whether it is formally the best hostel in New Zealand – but it certainly is up there, no doubt about it. When you arrive either Mike or Lynley (the owners) get you a fresh pot of tea / coffee… It’s just the little extras (of which there are many) that really set it apart.

There are kayaks and bikes to rent (for $10 a day or something super cheap like that) to explore the area. They have a lovely hot-spa which looks right out over the sounds.

One of the highlights for me was definitely the mussel night they had. They owners have their own mussel farm and every few nights they harvest them and put on a feed for everyone. Completely delicious – and made even more so by the fact that it’s all free! So yes, thank you Maaike for the encouragement to come and see the place. It really was wonderful and I would definitely recommend that if you’re in the area you make the effort to spend at least a couple of nights there.