This is pretty excellent accommodation. I was in Paihia for 4 nights and I spent 2 nights in Pipi Patch. The room I was staying in (8-bed dorm) was clean, and equipped with a fridge and a pantry. Overall, the place has a well-equipped kitchen, a mini pool and a bar (the night I was there happened to be the quiz night where you can win some pretty cool vouchers). There's also a TV room (with real comfy couches) next to the kitchen which is a nice place to chill out if the weather's bad outside. Internet is available for $4 an hour.
If you're seeking a peaceful/quiet atmosphere at night, then you should probably stay somewhere else cos the noise from the bar can be quite overwhelming late into the night. I'm an early sleeper, hence this bothered me greatly and after two nights, I moved to YHA, which is located further up the road (I've also wrote a review for this).

Loud and crowded.
I met lots of very nice people though.

We stayed here for one night in a double room. It shared a bathroom and small kitchen with toaster and kettle with two other rooms which was a nice touch.

The clothes washing facilities were ok although the dryers were a little poor and i ended up drying the clothes in our room on a makeshift clothes line (it was raining outside!)

The location of this hostel was excellent - just off the main street through the town. The bar area was excellent and this hostel had the best kitchen we have ever experienced! It was extremely well equipped and lovely and clean- it even had recylcing bins for cans and glass etc.

Would definately recommend staying here.

I stayed at the Pipi Patch for 3 nights in January 2007 in a double room. This was in a separate building to the dormitories, where the majority of travellers were staying. In my building, there were 3 double rooms, with a shared bathroom, separate WC and a kitchen.

My room contained a double bed with duvet and pillows (it was quite comfy), armchair, built-in wardrobe and a long wide ledge against one wall which was perfect for stashing my bags. One unexpected surprise was that towels were provided with the room, and these were changed daily! Everything was very clean. The shower always had hot water, though the water pressure was not that great.

Other reviewers have mentioned the nightly NZ$10 BBQ, which was good fun and a great way to meet fellow travellers or the people that were on the same backpacker bus but you never got the chance to speak to en route. There's an onsite hot tub, but I never got round to using it. The reception staff were always extremely helpful and willing to answer all questions. The only small drawback was that it closed early evening, but I'm sure that it would have been possible to find someone to help if anything had gone wrong. This is definitely not somewhere to stay if you like to get an early night's sleep - the bar is open until around midnight, and it's pretty noisy until then!

Some other useful info - the beach is right at the bottom of the road, and on the same street are a couple of good cafes, a mini mart and an internet cafe (though there is also internet access at the hostel). Most of the other hostels are on the same road. It's less than 10 minutes to walk to the waterfront where all the ferries and boat trips depart from.

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