After spending almost 8 months in NZ, sleeping in many different types of accomodations during our road trips, I was almost about to blog about the really horrible motel standards in this country. We haven’t seen any motel that we would call ‘awesome’ or even “very good” so far. Most of the motels (no matter which price) are quite old with damaged interior, many of them have showers that require you to jump in circles to get wet, some of them want to rip you off with internet extra traffic fees when you just want to check your emails, several of them have far too loud fridges just next to the bed and most of them come with a really disgusting smell, ranging from “whatever that could be” to very strong cleaning chemicals.
This weekend the weather forecast was sunny, so we decided to go to the Golden Bay area again. Trying to find places that we didn’t yet see. A few people suggested us to check out the Whanganui Inlet, not far away from the famous Farewell Spit (By the way: avoid the info point there! It’s a tourist trap that charges you for using their toilet!), so we booked a room for one night at the Wetland View Park. The name suggest a big motel complex, but to our surprise we arrived at a typical countryside house with a huge veggie garden next to two tent-style buildings in the middle of nowhere. ;)
This accomodation is definitely off the typical tourist routes, but worth every minute of driving the 30km gravel road. The hosts invited us to a very special goodie after sunset: They allowed us to see their very hidden treasure, a tiny spring/stream with sweet water crayfish, surrounded by a grotto full of typical NZ glow worms. An amazing experience! We enjoyed the absolute darkness of this area at night to watch the stars whily lying on the ground (the children saw their first shooting star ever!), far away from any bigger settlement. On the following day we enjoyed a short 1km walkway that the hosts have created, crossing a flax field, manuka forrest and some regenerating bush to a viewpoint that gives a beautiful outlook over the wetland.
The accomodation had all we missed so much on our many travels before:
- A spacious, clean and lovely room with excellent beds.
- A shower with good water pressure.
- Cooking facilities and a not-too-noisy fridge.
- Hosts who give you the feeling of really being welcome.
- Hosts who go the extra mile for their guests, showing them around, telling local stories and helping with everything you might need.
Yes, we finally found the motel that deserves the label “AWESOME!”. :)
