This place is sweet as mate! (New Zealand lingo, heh)
As you can expect from a hostel in a small town of several thousand in New Zealand, there are travelers from all over the world here and they coexist happily. I sat in the TV room one evening and watched Benjamin Button with two fine gentleman from a foreign country. I cooked in the kitchen with even more people from even more foreign countries. The stay wasn't long enough here for me to make any friends, but I'm sure it would have been quite easy and possible. That being said, the people tended to keep to themselves and the area was relatively quiet. You won't find a party in Picton (as far as I could tell) and by extension, you won't find a party at Sequoia Lodge.
There's a shuttle taking people around to known destinations and in the winter evenings there's free ice cream and brownies! Sequoia Lodge also has an outdoor hot tub you can reserve, as well as a TV room where I watched Benjamin Button with two guys from another country. Picton's a small town so you'll find everything you need to survive within walking distance, although you'll need some form of motorized transportation to get to any destinations in a reasonable amount of time. You're 30 minutes from wine country by car and just as far from Queen Charlotte Sound. read more