Russell Hostels - Reviews and Rates

The weather today is glorious, and breakfast is outside in the sunshine just a stone's throw from the beach and the ocean. All yesterday's weather had died down and the sounds of water are now from the waves coming up the beach rather than the gales pounding the windows. But we've had to earn our breakfast, which involved a trek up to the top of...

Having decided against enjoying a warm soak in the natural thermals of hot water beach in the approaching storm we headed back through the Coromandal region undecided on our next port. Jake had some mountainous challenges whilst driving through this forest region and his efforts weren't always appreciated by the ever growing line of cars that fr...

We get an early start and the weather looks promising as we get back in the car and try a little more of this driving on the wrong side of the road. Fortunately it is only a short drive to Paihia. We get a parking space on the first stretch of beach and set off to walk to the Ferry Terminal about 15 minutes away. There is a closer car park but w...

Although Val has still been struggling with her back still, we decided that we had to venture to the Bay of Islands about 2 ½ hours further north from Manghawai. As you drive you start to understand how much volcanic activity there has been in NZ. The roads are 'up and down' and the scenery beautiful with rolling hills and green trees wherever y...

Saturday morning, we checked out from our B&B, picked up our rental car and drove out of Auckland towards the North. The landscape was too beautiful too soon, we hadn't expected so much greenery of hill, and bluery of sea, and sunniness of sky so early in our trip, but our jaws eventually got tired and we managed to shut our mouths. We decided t...

I took a boat over to Russell (Kororareka) this morning with Dean. I hadn't realised how packed with history it was compared with other towns or even that it was once New Zealand's capital. Russell is quite similar in character to Paihia just over the water, and has a seaside village 'feel' to it. We visited the museum for a while and discovered...