Morning in Motueka

After a tourist group we were sharing our hostel with left early this morning, we had the entire place to ourselves, and Laura struck up a conversation with our hostelier.

He was yet another introspective New Zealander who had all sorts of interesting things to say once you drew him out a bit. He gave Laura a rundown on the various ways to access Abel Tasman National Park (more on that in a moment), and then shared the story of how he came to own and manage a hostel here in Motueka, NZ.

Originally, he and his partner had hoped to open a traditional motel, but the financing fell through. He talked about how crestfallen they were.

But then a smaller, cheaper building became available, suitable for a hostel rather than a motel, and they leased it and opened a YHA-affiliated hostel (YHA is one of the largest and best-quality hostel chains in New Zealand--more on New Zealand's excellent hostel system in a future post).

It turns out this was an even better fit for them--he said they wanted to interact with their guests more than he would have been able to at a traditional motel, and running a hostel was just perfect. A seemingly huge disappointment, a small twist of fate, and this guy's been living his dream ever since.