Sustainable Coastlines

I am a 20 year old girl who took a year off of university to travel for an extended period of time, have fun, and feel accomplished and productive while doing so. For me, the best option was to volunteer, as I did not have enough time to try and attain a working holiday visa. Considering this trip would be my first solo trip and I am a young girl, I felt the most comfortable joining a volunteer program, like IVHQ, where you volunteer alongside other young solo travellers, have 24/7 in-country support, and have basically every aspect of the trip organised and arranged for you in advance. My ultimate decision was to volunteer with IVHQ - more specifically, in New Zealand with Sustainable Coastlines. I do not want to bash Sustainable Coastlines or their staff because everyone was very friendly and knowledgeable, and I am extremely appreciative of what the organisation is working towards achieving. However, I was very disappointed and frustrated with their lack of communication and support when needed. The hostel Attic Backpackers listed on the website when I signed up for the program was fully booked. As a result, Sustainable Coastlines booked us into a different hostel, but never informed the volunteers about this switch until the latter hostel flooded and they had to book us into a third hostel. Only then was I informed that I would be staying at a different hostel, which was called Choice Backpackers. This hostel was of a significantly lower calibre than Attic Backpackers for no price reduction. Before volunteering began , I travelled around NZD a bit and happened to stay in Choice Backpackers for a couple nights. It was disgusting… even for a hostel. Had I known I would be booked into Choice Backpackers for 2 weeks with the volunteer program, I would not have booked the trip. Regardless, I went to Choice Backpackers for check-in on my day of arrival. I shared a room with the other volunteers and there was literally no room for everyone’s bags. There are no desks or locked drawers to keep your stuff, so everyone had their belongings sprawled on the dirty floor. The mattress covers had large brown stains, the baseboards of the wall what you propped your bag up against was stained brown, I had chewing gum stuck to the bedpost right beside my head, I think there were boogers smeared onto the pillar beside my bed, and there were blood splatters on the light switch. I slept the night and in the morning saw a cockroach scurry beside my foot while I used the washroom. I immediately packed my bags and walked around downtown looking for an available hostel. I explained to Te Hira, the person who was supposed to be 24/7 volunteer support, that I would like a refund on the portion of my fee that goes towards accommodation. I planned to use the refunded money to purchase my own accommodation at a clean and acceptable hostel. This was the first week of February 2023. I received my refund on June 15 2023. Te Hira would continuously promise me that she would speak to her higher-ups, send emails to the accounting department on my behalf, etc. Instead I received a lack of response for days, and even weeks, at a time. To make things worse, she had her read-receipts on, so I was able to see that she had read my messages but just didn’t care to respond. It took me almost 5 MONTHS to receive a refund, and throughout those 5 months I had to continuously send emails, texts, and make phone calls, hounding the volunteer program and demanding a response from Te Hira. In terms of food, you’re just given a bag of groceries for the week. It consists of things like bread, apples, bananas, cheese, sandwich meat, chips, hummus, etc, that the volunteer program buys for you. You’re better off to just buy your own groceries and get what you actually want. As someone who chooses to travel across the world to volunteer their time and efforts towards improving the visited country, while PAYING to do so, they deserve better.

Great venture, and a great set of buildings they’ve built up, making it pretty much self-sustaining itself. Also a great location as a venue for special functions. Like it most though as they’re an outlet for ‘Sub’ flipflops/jandals, they’re really excellent durable/comfy and a role model for sea-sourced recycling.

love their initiative to clean out beaches.. its good fun too and you'll be doing your bit for your community and planet..

It's okay around this area dont know much about but just how tight it is around this area

A great organisation doing great things