High Country Lodge and Backpackers — Hotel in South Island

Owner is a nut who takes every opportunity to create confrontation and call people out. When I didn't recieve a booking confirmation by email I called to confirm I actually had a place to stay that night and he became agitated and yelled into the phone when the signal was bad and he couldn't hear my replies. Which was extremely odd. He insisted he sent "email confirmations that morning." Which never were. I had even checked my spam filter.

Upon arrival I heard numerous stories from other long stay guests about his behaviour. My mistake was walking into reception with my flat sheets upon checkout (which was apparently the wrong thing to do), him being on the phone I merely pointed at the sheets and did the "question face." His reaction was to look exasperated at me and upon closing his conversation on the phone this back and forth transpires: Him: I was on the phone. Me: I see that (I begin to walk towards the door) Him shouting at me: You are a very rude person you know that? And I just thought of all the stories I had heard from the other guests about his behaviour and just gave a laugh as I exited.

That same day I leave my food in the common area fridge as we are going on a day hike to mount cook. At 3 pm when I and 4 others return (some of whom have checked out) we have some tea. He enters the room and immediately starts calling everyone out about being checked out and how dare we be on the premises if we aren't staying another night. And he gets to me and starts semi-yelling "and you! the chirpy little girl from this morning! You need to get out of here!" (I'm 29) And he just looks at me like he wants to me say ANYTHING in order have a yelling match about it. And I just say "I'm leaving." and leave it at that. Can't even imagine what it's like to be his employee if he is this critical of guests.

Also, internet sucks. don't pay for it. Really pretty much no reason to choose this location over any other accommodation around. Just save yourself the hassle and don't deal with this...

Location and staff are the only two advantages of this hotel. The staff at the counter are very friendly.

The room I stayed in had a private kitchen, but it was very dirty. Bowls, pans...everything in the kitchen is dirty. It seems they didn't wash them before offering this room to us...the kitchen doesn't have a range hood, but there is a smoke alarm. When I fry a steak, I have to constantly be aware of the smoke from the Menard reaction. Yes, the accident still happened and the smoke alarm still went off. The owner came to us angrily and scolded us, suspecting our wrong use. The previous comments were justified. The owner would talk to you in a condescending tone, as if he was always right and you were an ignorant 3-year-old child. If a range hood is not provided, then restrictions should be placed where the firepower is, rather than threats afterwards. He asked us to compensate the pan, since there’s scorching on it. But we cleaned it and made it as it was.

That's not the worst part. One day, the water supply was cut off and there was no way to flush, wash hands, etc... And at the same time, there’s no staff in the counter. No one can help.

This is the worst place I have ever stayed in New Zealand. Looking forward to the owner’s sharp...

Ignore the bad reviews. Honestly I was a bit afraid when I read the reviews after I had already booked the place to stay for 3 nights, wondering if I would be traumatised staying in what was narrated to be a really bad motel. Turned out to be a great place with huge value. If you had already done your research, a similar place in lake tekapo or mt. cook village would probably blow a hole in your pocket. The whole point of staying here is because you don't mind driving the distance to mt. Cook whilst enjoying the convenience of amenities such as supermarket, cafe and f&b that is just a short walk opposite the motels. For goodness sake what is there to complain about a TV that is a CRT from ages ago when it works well. Some motels don't even have tv. The only bad thing if I have to complain about is that the common door to the walkway bang shut every time it is opened because people are not aware and courteous enough to close it lightly. Other than that for the pricing you get a good kitchen and with an additional small price pretty good wifi. Great stay for me at least. Anyone who wanna complain pls go stay at tekapo and tell me if you can get the same at the same...