we stayed here to find work and because it seemed to be the only backpackers in town with van sites.
pros:
-incredibly easy to find work
-staff is nice
-very clean, cleaned every day, awesome hot showers
-most multicultural hostel we found in nz, eg not full of germans but truly people from all over the world
-at $80 per week, cheap
-centrally located
-owner seems to be making improvements, even building a small movie room
cons:
-the goddamn train
-worst kitchen ever. shitty camping cookers that are so high up you cant see what you are cooking unless you are at least 6 feet tall. this is not an exaggeration, i am 5,6 and i could not see my food. tiny kitchen always packed until 9pm, but it closes at 10. because of this sometimes we actually cooked in our car to avoid this, which made us wonder why we paid for a site in the first place. staff told us there was a bigger kitchen but it was closed since the hostel was not full - but when we asked for our secondweek discount, we were told the discount was not available because the hostel *was* full. hmm.
- nice bbq area for summer, but the only common area otherwise is a table in a tent. when the kitchen closes, there is literally no place to be inside. the rooms are pretty nice, with tvs and fridges, but everyone living in their van was fed up. literally the only place to go to get warm was the shower, and you cannot always be in the shower! we ended up leaving blenheim largely for this reason, although we certainly didnt regret coming here.