New Zealand Accommodation Choices

"Everything from a camper's paradise to luxury lodges"

No matter where you decide to lay your head at the end of another long hard day enjoying yourself in New Zealand, you can take your pick from a range of accommodation options. Everything from $7 a night campgrounds to posh gaffs like the $5000 a night mansion that Rolling Stone Keith Richards stayed in while recovering from a head injury received when monkeying around in pacific island palm trees.

Let's start at the bottom and work our way up to the lap of luxury.

Camping, campgrounds and cabins

Youth hostels and backpackers lodges

Homestays and farmstays

Bed n' Breakfast Hotels

Camping.

The NZ countryside is a camper's paradise. There are lots of places you can simply pitch camp and just enjoy the incredible wild loneliness of the back blocks.

Campgrounds are widely spread, available in every town and hamlet. The range of facilities varies from just the basics to all the bells and whistles - kitchens, flush loos, hot showers, electric power sites. Luxury!!

A very good guide to NZ campsites, "The NZ Camping Guide", is produced by Gay Kerr. She actually travels around inspecting every camp, staying at many, and she passes on her undiluted opinions, some of which can be less than complimentary. She'll suggest campground options that you might not have found for yourself - the charming, smaller, out-of-the-way places. It's one of my travel bibles and for dedicated campers is a must-buy. Published now in two volumes - North Island ($18.95) and South Island ($16.95) from their website or any good bookstore.

The Department of Conservation (DOC) also runs many campgrounds throughout the country on its vast land-holdings. It may be an island in the Hauraki Gulf, a World Heritage Park in Westland or just a simple scenic reserve. Charges range from free in the more inaccessible and basic locations, to a few dollars where toilets, fresh water and fire-places come as standard. Here's a DoC website with listings of huts and campsites throughout the country.

Cabins and tourist flats.

But campgrounds have more than just green-grassed sites ready for the tap of the peg mallet. Many have a range of hard accommodation - from simple cabins to full-scale motel apartments. I'm a particular fan - and customer - of the cabins and their slightly more upmarket relative, the tourist flat.

The difference? Cabins are usually just one room with bunks and a heater. No running water, no toilets, no shower - in other words they a really a hard-hat tent. Prices range from $30 to $55 a night. A tourist flat on the other hand is self-contained - toilet and shower. Prices start at about $50 up to $65.

Some of the cabins, however, can approach luxury. One of my favourites, Lorneville Holiday Park just out of Invercargill, for instance, has tea and coffee making facilities, duvets and . . . what joy, what bliss, what decadence . . . electric blankets!

Here's a good guide to campgrounds (they call them Holiday Accommodation Parks these days . . . how veddy, veddy up-market). The camps that belong to the Holiday Accommodation Parks Assn are invariably a safe bet in terms of quality.

Youth and backpackers hostels

Hostels are well spread throughout the country. They range from small four-bed ops to huge factory-like mass packers. The typical operation will have a mixture of single, twin/doubles, and shared dormitories with four to eight bunks per room. Shared bath/toilet facilities are usual though some will have ensuite rooms as an option. Prices: For singles mostly in the $20-30 per night. Share twin/double $15 to $23 per person. Shared rooms $16-22 per person. Get more information from the backpacker site.

A few options to get you started in Auckland: The Brown Kiwi in Prosford St, Ponsonby, City Garden Lodge and Aloe Tree in St Georges Bay Rd, Parnell, or Bamber House and Oakland Lodge in Mt Eden. In the centre of the city there's Base Backpackers, and Queen St Backpackers, all in Fort St, or Central City Backpackers in Lorne St.

Homestays and Farmstays

Overseas they're called bed n' breakfasts. The idea's the same - though here a bed n' breakfast hotel is slightly different . . . see the next section. It's a great way to get to meet the native Kiwi in its nest. While they are paid for the service, in most cases your hosts are more motivated by the experience of meeting different people from different parts of the world. Great friendships have blossomed in this way.

Typically they'll cost $65 to $100 per couple per night, but some of the more up-market options will go much higher.

The farm stay gives you the chance to experience the way of life on a working NZ farm.

There are a couple of websites that will give you plenty of options. New Zealand Homestay and Farmstay or the NZ Bed n Breakfast Book. We use them as base references all the time.

I had a rich American client - the sort who usually stays at five star hotels - who spent several days on a sheep farm. One day he helped out with a chore called "dagging". As sheep eat and excrete, some of the excrement catches on the wool around their hindquarters and builds up gradually into hard little balls of wool and dung called dags. Each year this sternmost addendum to the animal is shorn away in the said process of "dagging". This particular platinum card client spent a day in the wool shed sweeping up the shorn dags as they fell from the shearers' clippers.

At the end of the day, exhausted and grimy from top to toe, sitting atop of a bale of wool with a cold beer in his hand he exclaimed "I don't believe this! I've paid good money to spend all day sweeping up sheep shit . . . and I enjoyed every bloody minute of it!". Seems he'd picked up something of the local dialect from the shearers as well.

Bed n' Breakfast Hotels

A bed and breakfast hotel is like an overgrown homestay. They are usually large family residences that have been converted into multi-roomed mini-hotels. Some of them are absolutely exquisite (with prices to match) but most are simpler and represent very good value for uncomplicated accom. You'll get some options from the NZ Federation of Bed and Breakfast Hotels website. For the more upmarket option go to the Heritage and Character Inns of NZ website.

Motels.

The motel is New Zealand's contribution to world tourist technology. It's such a simple, such a practical solution to a traveller's needs. They are self-contained apartments with their own kitchen, bathroom/toilet and sleeping area. In the simplest form - usually called a studio - there is little more than a bedroom, rudimentary kitchen and a separate bathroom/toilet. This option differs little from a typical hotel room.

But the next step up the size continuum would have a separate, fully-functional kitchen. Then add separate bedrooms and separate living areas and you finally arrive at the fully operational apartment layout. In its latest manifestation they are luxurious vacation apartments with everything you need for a very cruisey holiday.

In most cases a major attraction is the ability to park your car close to the room, thus minimising that incredibly time-wasting business of hoisting everything from car to room - and back again in the morning.

There are several motel chains operating in the marketplace, most notably Golden Chain, Best Western, Pacifica, Budget Motels. If you want to save on your accommodation costs at motels, download our guide to Auckland now. It will tell you how to save a heap on every night's stay.

Hotels.

Take your choice of everything from a simple country pub to a full-on international five star hotel. A number of the major international hotel chains are established here.

You'll get full details on Auckland accommodation, for instance, by downloading our E-Travel Guide To Auckland. That will tell you how to save huge amounts on your accommodation costs. I stayed in a five star hotel not long ago for just $99 a night - their usual rack rate is over $400.

Luxury Lodges

If you really want to lie back in the lap of luxury there are a number of lodges where your every whim and whimper will be pandered to. Usually there's some poor damn taxpayer somewhere paying all or part of the bill - it's politicians and business-people on tax deductions that are most commonly found here. Don't get me wrong - it's a great lurk if you can get away with it.

You'll get some excellent property options from Friars Guide. or from the Heritage and Character Inns of NZ website.

Get my detailed Travel Guide To Auckland

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Written by a local who eats, lives and shops in his own city every day.

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