If you ever find yourself in Dunedin, this is the place to stay - and not just because they picked a clever name. This friendly, super-homey hostel occupies one of the huge old houses on the hill near the city centre. With a wide, curving staircase with dark wood banisters, lovely plaster moulding, big windows and a chandelier, the building has a charm of its own (made better by notes scattered around from the "house elves" or "Professor Dumbledore." (Fun fact - Dumbledore is in either blogger's or firefox's dictionary. That makes me happy.) Keeping with the Harry Potter theme, the old coach house/stables went by the name of "Hagrid's Cottage." (Hagrid is
not in the dictionary :( ). Most of the rooms had regular numbers, but there was also Dobby's room, room 9, and room 9 3/4.
Instead of keys there were passwords (of the high-tech numerical variety, which is actually pretty practical for a hostel since keys are easy to lose), and the dining/common area had a nice warm wood stove and above that a loft with comfy couches. The smaller, friendly environment made it really easy for people to chat. I met a Canadian couple from Manitoba, and ended up having a lengthy conversation about math (haha I'm not even kidding) (and other topics, don't worry) with an engineer, a physicist, and someone else who did a bachelor's in math (and then proceeded to work in a completely unrelated industry :p ).
Large quantities of tea (with the ridiculously delicious milk) were consumed by yours truly, making for a rather later-than-usual night (caffeeeeeeiiiiinnnnneeee.... hehehehe). Today, I'm heading a little further north, up the coast to the little town of Oamaru.
If you ever find yourself in Dunedin, this is the place to stay - and not just because they picked a clever name. This friendly, super-homey hostel occupies one of the huge old houses on the hill near the city centre. With a wide, curving staircase with dark wood banisters, lovely plaster moulding, big windows and a chandelier, the building has a charm of its own (made better by notes scattered around from the "house elves" or "Professor Dumbledore." (Fun fact - Dumbledore is in either blogger's or firefox's dictionary. That makes me happy.) Keeping with the Harry Potter theme, the old coach house/stables went by the name of "Hagrid's Cottage." (Hagrid is not in the dictionary :( ). Most of the rooms had regular numbers, but there was also Dobby's room, room 9, and room 9 3/4. 
Instead of keys there were passwords (of the high-tech numerical variety, which is actually pretty practical for a hostel since keys are easy to lose), and the dining/common area had a nice warm wood stove and above that a loft with comfy couches. The smaller, friendly environment made it really easy for people to chat. I met a Canadian couple from Manitoba, and ended up having a lengthy conversation about math (haha I'm not even kidding) (and other topics, don't worry) with an engineer, a physicist, and someone else who did a bachelor's in math (and then proceeded to work in a completely unrelated industry :p ). 
Large quantities of tea (with the ridiculously delicious milk) were consumed by yours truly, making for a rather later-than-usual night (caffeeeeeeiiiiinnnnneeee.... hehehehe). Today, I'm heading a little further north, up the coast to the little town of Oamaru.
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