allowed camping so we gave them a call and they sent a taxi to pick us up. The hostel was Arnott’s Lodge, they had a great website and a complimentary review in Rough Guide. We booked in and pitched the tent then headed off to check out the kitchen, where we found a list of rules and regulations longer than your arm! It was crazy, you were only allowed one item of food in the fridge and if you dared step into the dorm section you’d be out on your ear and woe be-tied you if you didn’t wash up immediately after you’d used the kitchen! According to one of the many rules notices, the camp ground was only for REAL travellers and therefore REAL travellers only required one item of food in the fridge!!! Now excuse me, but we have been travelling for the past 13 months and if you thought for one minute that dear old Roberto would be satisfied with one bag of food whilst camping then you must be out of your mind!!! There was also no luggage storage which meant keeping all of your stuff in your tent along

with all of your additional bags of food, and there were notices up everywhere telling you not to leave anything unattended due to the amount of theft!!! After much grumbling we went to check out the showers! Again the list of rules and regulations were incredible. Tenters, as we were referred to, were not allowed anywhere near the indoor showers, no we were banished to the outdoor ones, with doors that lets say didn’t particularly shut very well and doors which even I could see over the top of them! Grrrrrr we didn’t like this place already!

There was also a very over-friendly and particularly loud man who seemed to just hover around and was just a plain old know it all, he had done everything and the only thing important to him was making money - seemed a bit odd to us that he appeared to be living in a tent while he was waiting to buy his plot of land on the Big Island land! What a