YOUTH HOSTEL ASSOCIATION.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20828, 11 April 1933, Page 5

YOUTH HOSTEL ASSOCIATION.

ACCOMMODATION ARRANGED ON WEST COAST. Members of tramping clubs affiliated to the Youth Hostel Association may now take advantage of a chain of hostels on the West Coast road. The new chain includes- the Bealey, Arthur's Pass, Otira Gorge, Jackson's, Moana, Kumara, and Mitchell's. Negotiations with Stillwater and Greymouth have not yet proved successful ( and one of the hostel secretaries will leave for the West Coast to-day in an endeavour to complete the chain before Easter. The executive of the association has gone to considerable trouble to establish the new chain, but although the hostels at the Bealey, Arthur's Pass, and Otira Gorge were arranged more than a month ago they have not yet been used by members. It has been a disappointment to those who have been working to establish the West Coast chain, that there has not been one application for the accommodation arranged there, whereas booking for the Banks Peninsula has been so heavy that many parties have been refused accommodation. Advantage of Low Rates. "It is a pity that when hostel rates have been offered, trampers should not have taken advantage of them,"

a member of the association said yesterday. "Is it that the hostels are not sufficiently known, or is it that the cost of rail transport is a deterrent?" The association is intending to publish soon another handbook for the use of trampers. It is the wish of the association to have permanent rest houses in the form of open-air shelters, but it is doubtful whether this wish will be fulfilled for some time. List of Hostels. The list of hostels at which members of affiliated tramping clubs may gain accommodation at reduced rates is as follows: Banks Peninsula —Hilltop (Hilltop Hotel), Duvauchelle Bay (Mrs Duncan), Akaroa (Metropole Hotel), Le Bon's Bay (Mrs Currie), Okain's Bay (Mrs R. Mason), Pigeon Bay (Mrs G. Blomquist), Port Levy (Mrs Grand, Owetera shearing shed), Diamond Harbour (Godley House), Teddington (Wheatsheaf Hotel), Wainui (Mrs Warner). • West Coast Road—Bealey (hotel), Arthur's Pass (hostel), Otira Gorge (hotel), Jackson's (hotel), Moana (Lake View), Kumara (hotel), Mitchell's (Lake Brunner Hotel), Stillwater and Greymouth, to be arranged.