Base Christchurch Backpackers

Base Backpackers will be known to the well travelled. They have hostels throughout NZ and Australia.
Base in Christchurch is an ideal place to stay. Its centrally located and caters to budget travellers.
They have 4,6,8 bed dorms, as well as double rooms.
What i did find was that they do tend to charge a lot for their accommodation, maybe because they are a 'brand' hostel. I stayed here during New Zealand winter 06' and it was good, but not exceptional.
They do not provide a free pick up from the trainstation for those who have just finished the spectacular TransScenic train journey, or the airport.

To the hostel...
The rooms are relativly clean and the shared bathrooms are very large, so no waiting to shower!
I found the bar to be quiet but cheap. Perhaps it was due to the time i was there. It seemed to be mainly English and Irish staying here and can be impersonal because of the size of the hostel. However you can be lucky as to who is in your dorm, i was lucky and made some friends in mine.

The TV room is situated on the 1st floor and has a HUGE screen and seating area...perfect for those rainy days.
Kitchen is on the TOP FLOOR.
I found the internet to be slow and relativly expensive.

Overall i would stay here again, mainly because i think you can meet some wicked people here and its an ideal base to carry on the TransAlpine train journey, go snowboarding, or make your way down to Queenstown.

Unique Quality: Huge TV room
Large Kitchen
Cheap drinks at bar
Pool Room

Directions: Near Cathedral.
Shuttle from railway station costs $15.

Highly recommended. Sweet location right on Cathedral Square. Service was good. Right next to Tandoori House Indian Cuisine. Only cost like NZ$24 for a dorm room. Ended up meeting some awesome people and hanging out. Went to a party with some of the local Base employees...LOTS OF FUN!!! Also, bar inside had happy hour and all the local brews.

Rooms clean, bed comfortable.

Unique Quality: Staff very friendly, fun, and helpful. Definately for younger crowd.

I arrived in Chritchurch on a late flight from Australia and so I had reserved this place right on Cathedral Square, the most central point of the city. The check-in went alright, though is not computerised so took some time to allocate a bed for me. I had heard great things about the new backpackers group Base Backpackers, but my stay wasn't as good as I had expected. The showers were terrible to say the least. It was clean, but the water pressure was terrible and at some stage no water would come out of the shower head at all!! The kitchen is horrible too, there are hardly any pans in the kitchen, and the hot plates have difficulties getting water boiled. But nothing can beat the location, and the rooms were pretty big, so I stayed here for a couple of nights anyway, to lazy to move to another place.

Unique Quality: As said before the loaction is the hostel unique selling point, with if you;re lucky views of the Cathedral! Other than this there weren't any unique qualities. I have to say though that during my stay they were in a process of going from Star Times Backpackers to Base Backpackers. So maybe by now the quality of the hostel has improved a lot. At least Base promotes themselves as the best chain of backpackers around. The ones I stayed in in Auckland and Wellington were amazingly good, so I think they will put the standard of this hostel on a higher level too.

Directions: Right on Cathedral Square, you can't miss it really!