Stewart Island Backpackers Review

Martin Henley April 21, 2015 8:10 am

Good morning from Stewart Island, New Zealand’s third largest Island located 30 km south of the South Island.

Stewart Island is great for all sorts of nature tours: boat tours, bird tours, eco tours, walking tours– all making for photographs.

It’s Tuesday April 28th and we’ve been staying at the Hilltop Backpackers. Overall we think it’s really cool. We paid $30 a night, or $70 for a double room. The showers are only hot when the fire’s been on, otherwise you’ll have a cold shower—I learned that the hard way.

There’s no Wi-Fi but we like that because everyone does something together rather than just hanging out on their phones. It’s like a home from home. It’s really cozy, everyone’s really friendly.

We had waffles for breakfast, we had dinner all together Sunday night. We’d definitely recommend it and would stay here again.

You have to be careful though—be warned of something called Hilltop laziness. A syndrome where people come to the hostel and forget what it is that they’re meant to be doing, and sort of just stop and hangout.

Amy is awesome, we want to thank her for the great stay!

Here’s a first hand example of how Hilltop laziness can effect you. (name?) Has been on Stewart Island for five days, he has been “walking around a bit” he’s visited Ulva island famous for its birds, he’s done the walking trek www.umarkets.com/ which had some awesome views, and he says the jungle was great as well.

When asked if he would recommend the Hilltop Backpackers, “Shit yea.”

See the end of the video for some German translation, I think they said something about Oktoberfest?? Maybe I need to study up on my German.

New Zealand Travel Review’s advice, make the trip down to Stewart island, stay in Hilltop Backpackers—it’s awesome.

You can book your room at Hilltop Backapckers here.
Have you been to Steward Island or plan to go?
Did you stay at the Hilltop Backpackers?
If you know of any other Stewart Island accommodation that you would recommend, or just want to say hi, do so below in the comments!