Betty C.
Yelp
A small lodge, with a quite large shared cooking and lounge area on the second floor with a nice deck with 2 grills and outdoor seating looking out onto Mount Cook (when it is not socked in by clouds.) This room has 5 couches with seating for 12 to 15, two smaller two person seating areas, three large six top tables with chairs, one large screen TV with about 30 Sky TV channels and a wood burning stove. Cooking area has two separate four burner electric ranges, two sinks, a long peninsula for meal prep, plenty of glassware, plates, utensils and cooking vessels, a large toaster and two refrigerators to store guests food. Quite the "commune" feel but it was very orderly as we saw guests cook, eat and clean up after themselves. Almost asked a family if we could buy a small plate of their tasty smelling Asian dishes!
Rooms are decent size but modest with regards to furnishings (no closet - just a wheeled wardrobe with four metal hangers, but there are two nightstands with small lamps) and front (mountain facing) rooms have a view of Mt Cook with two chairs and a small round table at a large picture window. Small TV in upper corner of room with only 8 channels. Our ensuite bath/shower floor is one continuous surface with drain in far corner. Toilet is way too close to the bathroom door - very awkward. Hair dryer in nightstand is nice and powerfully hot!
Front desk offers basic food (butter, jam, instant ramen, canned items) and toiletries (toothpaste etc) for sale as there is no grocery within 70 km or so.
Wifi is limited to 1GB per room and difficult to connect to unless you turn your iPhone off and back on after you arrive. (We had to use their house phone to call their internet service provider after reception could not help us much and kept saying it was our phone settings that were wrong. Now they know to suggest a phone reboot to alleviate the problem.) This is not the cheapest or most expensive place around the Mt Cook village and you do certainly pay for the location and views, however it was quite comfortable and easy to book online. They do, as many places seem to do in NZ, charge 2% if you pay with a credit card.