Very lovely, right on the beach, 500 metres' walk from the rocks. Friendly staff, good communal areas, deliberately no TV (this is a good thing!) to encourage interaction, and plenty of board games. Rooms, laundry and wifi (if you want it you have to pay $10 for the day even if you only need it for a few minutes) are all slightly pricier than other NZ hostels but it's lovely.

I personally didn't like this hostel. Okay, so it was clean, had a nice lounge, good showers and an okay kitchen. However, I stayed in a 5 bed dorm which smelt very damp. The pillows were old and lumpy and the bed had sunk in the middle making for a awful night of sleep! The bottom bunk had loads of space above it, but this meant that the top bunk was very close to the ceiling. It meant that I couldn't sit up straight on the bed - I had to tilt my head or lie down. There was no real ladder on the bunk, so you kind of had to climb up using the rails at the end of the bed but this was not ideal as I had sore legs from doing a hike on the glacier the previous day. You also had to ensure that you didn't smash your head when you got up there, all in all it was very awkward. The curtains were also not wide enough to fit the windows properly.

The hostel is in a great location in that it really is beach front but this would not be enough to make me stay here again!

This place used to advertise a spa available, but it has since been removed - which is rather sad.

Nice beach views on a clear day. Not far from the Pancake rocks.

Had to wait in line to use the showers in the morning and all and all the bathrooms were small and not very clean. There was no internet available during our stay. Overall not a good experience. This place needs some work.

we were put in the 2nd hostel, 1/2 km down the road, so we weren't actually by the beach. as previously mentioned, the building is on sale. beds were sturdy enough (for bunkbeds) and the home made bread smelled nice. didn't buy any though so I don't know how nice it was. we were meant to be picked up from the bus stop but nobody turned up so we walked. wasn't far, but it was hot and we were carrying heavy bags so not fun! apparently we were meant to ring when we arrived, but we had already given a time of when our bus would arrive and a phone call was not mentioned on booking!we were not allowed to use the laundry until 12pm because they use it to do their own washing until 12. we stayed 2 nights and when we were going to put the washing in we were told to use the washing machine at the other hostel, which had an out of order sign on it. owner said it was working again now and said we could use it, but when he realised we had checked out and were not staying a 3rd night he moaned the hostel had a lot of washing to do and were busy. so basically, we couldn't do our washing and didn't feel like we could ask for a lift to the bus stop either (leaflet advertises free pickup/drop off). would not recommend staying here. i heard the YHA place is nice, but I'd recommend staying in the tavern instead. the staff are so friendly and they were the reason we enjoyed our visit to punakaiki and meant we had somewhere to escape from the moody owner!