Discovery Lodge Tongariro

Rude ownerMy husband and I call the lodge to cancel our stay because of a medical emergency. The women who answer the phone was extremely rude because we’ve call at non-working hours.We call at 19:45 (Australian time), to be honest we didn’t know there was a time difference, it was 22:45 (NZ time). At first, we though we have misdial the number due to the way we were treated, we could not believe a hotel will mistreat it’s guest like that. Also, in the confirmation email they don’t mention anything regarding their working hours they actually say “contact us at anytime”.When we realize we dial correctly and it was actually the hotel, we send an email and we apologize because we were not aware of time difference. The owner reply and didn’t apologize for her behavior, she actually just said what were her working hours and mention that she was in bed by the time we call.I’ve never seen a hotel get so angry to call on non-working hours, normally they just don’t answer the phone and people understand no one is at reception.We completely understand the lodge cancellation policy and its working hours, but we don’t understand unkind behavior.We are relief we are not staying here.#bekind

We pitched a tent here for a couple of nights. Good place to stay with free hot showers, communal kitchen and common room. Recycle and rubbish bins as well. There is campervan spots, small and big hut units plus motel rooms up the top. Good value for money. Would stay here again

nice and quite place to stay close to the Tongariro. Excellent shuttle service for the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. The community facilities need an update like kitchen facilities and showers.

Booked a powered campsite for my motor home. Easy to book and get directions to the allocated site number. Great views of the volcanoes/mountains and quiet. Kitchen was simple and lacked the BBQ stoves. Shower has hot water but not constant temperature throughout. Otherwise it is perfect!

We stayed in Chalet 19. It was lovely. Clean and spacious enough for the two of us. Great view of the mountains. We used the shuttle service to hike the Tongariro Alpine Crossing and it worked out great! I would definitely stay here again.

We tried staying in chalet, motel studio, and once in a camping hut. Every time it was great! 5-star clean, including communal facilities. Best place to rest after a multi-day hike! Thank you Callum and Miki!

Fantastic scenery, lots of space, helpful staff, easy booking process, clean facilities. Crossing shuttle was excellent and super convenient. No need for wifi when the area is so beautiful. Very reasonably priced.

Discovery lodge tongaririo was a great place to stay and as a base for the alpine crossing. It was clean, had hot showers, sufficient bathrooms, stove tops for cooking (bring your own pots and utensils!) And Callum was very responsive via email/WhatsApp too with my many questions. Highly recommended to get the return shuttle too if you're doing the alpine crossing. Thanks Callum for the conversation and sharing your beautiful place you grew up in with people from all over the world! We got tent sites and it was very comfortable as well, flat ground, car parking nearby (right in front of the shared facilities and across the tent site) so everything was good!

If you want to do the tongariro crossing, it's probably the best place to stay as they're offering early shuttle busses to the start. However, if you just want to spend the day it gets tricky, as they close the communal area for cleaning from 10 am to 1 pm. There are no alternate toilets, so we actually had to leave the campsite to go on the toilet which was kinda weird. The staff isn't too friendly either, especially the female blonde facility manager was a very rude. Unfortunately you can't park your car next to your tent site, which means you have longer walking distances if you need something out of the car.

Well run, clean campsite, with good kitchen and hot showers. Convenient for the Crossing. We used their shuttle, which was good, but there is a trade off between beating the crowds and missing some of the scenery (walking in the dark until Soda Springs...), and if we ever do the crossing again, we'd probably want to do it in daylight. There is no wifi yet all the communication (re shuttle, pitch number etc) is via email, which isn't great if you don't have a data package. The reception door was locked every time we went there over our 2 night stay. Still, a nice campsite in Tongariro.