YHA planning hostel on Stewart Island waterfront

HOSTEL PLAN: An artist's impression of a new hostel for Stewart Island.

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Construction on a new eco-friendly hostel on Stewart Island is set to begin next year.

Proposed by the Youth Hostels Association of New Zealand in celebration of its 75th anniversary, the project is expected to be approved early next year. If resource consent is granted, construction on the 52-56 bunk hostel will begin immediately, with a tentative completion date of early 2010.

While strictly still a hostel and open to the general public, the Oban Waterfront hostel will be available to schools and groups to hire. An "education centre" with computers, an interactive whiteboard and library will be attached to the building, allowing schools and groups space to work.

The Southland District Council allocations committee this week agreed to give $30,000 towards the proposal, set to cost $3,460,000. Stewart Island ward councillor Bruce Ford said the proposal had "thumbs up all round".

"It will be a great asset from the education side of things because a lot of the school groups come here and if they can accommodate them all in one place, that would be great."

Discussing the funding proposal, the committee stressed it was approving the grant on the basis of the education centre and the benefit to the wider community, not the commercial side of the hostel.

Association fundraising co-ordinator Shelley Keach said, while the building would be as environmentally friendly as possible, they were avoiding the word "eco".

"Originally we were calling it an eco-hostel but we have kind of dropped that at the moment because we can't build it as eco as we like because of the cost," she said. "If you wanted to build it out of milk bottles and things like that it would just be exorbitant but at the same time it is very green and very sustainable; it has solar water heating panels and will have grey water recycling for the bathrooms."

The association was approaching groups to raise money for the project including the Community Trust of Southland and several trusts and government department grants, Ms Keach said.

- © Fairfax NZ News