For those doing it on their own...id say dont stay at base, except for Taupo or Queenstown.

This is the pros and cons on each place ive stayed in so far:

christchurch
pros: lockers, bedside table, fridge, good mattresses
cons: very noisy as you can hear doors slamming each time, squishy kinda..old

queenstown
pros: good bar, fridge, good size room, lockers, friendly staff, plenty of computers, new, very central location, reading lights.

cons: loos are one per room (8 beds) but the loo only has room for the loo and a sanitary bin, and the shower is the same size and you have to press the button to get the water going and it only lasts like 20secs at most so very annoying for washing hair.

wellington
pros: hm not many... bed lockers...

cons: only got enough room to put your bag and thats it...showers are squishy...too large and old room...**** really

taupo
pros: overlooking lake, only 4 beds in sanctuary rooms, own bathroom, nice staff, reading lights on each bed, good head space for those on lower bunk..

cons: no lockers or fridge or enough computers,

Taupo is definatley the best one!

Rotorua:
pros: very close to a geothermal park, got a thermal pool (but dont dive in, its very hot, and on pale skin you can see where it like 'burns' you... but its nice), hm good net, rooms are spacious

cons: old crappy building no lift, the female dorm is 12 beds (4 in one section and 8 in the other) and only 1 shower and loo....no lockers, really old heaters..used by magic and kiwi experience (but this was good coz ive made some friends when i found out they were going to the maori dinner that i was going to)
basically the worst one...and noisy coz of the stupid bar...

not looking forward to staying in the ACB one as thats even worse apparently....am trying to get my travel agent to change it for me..

Thanks auzzie liz! I leave next week, so thanks for preparing me. Do you find you have enough time to do your normal shower etc routine with so few bathrooms?

Forgot to update them
BOI made rotorua seem like luxury.

I got in at about 9.30pm at night coz i got a late flight. As soon as the shuttle pulled in i was like oh **** this aint good. Its more like a caravan park with multiple cabins all squished together. I had to check in at the bar, nice pple. Got given the key and went to find my bed. Now it was a 8 bed dorm split into 2 rooms kinda. I tried to find a bed for like 10mins, even though it was a very tiny and messy room! I couldnt find one and grumply dumped my bag and stormed back to the bar and was on the verge of tears coz i hated the place already. It was soooo noisy! The staff memeber came back to the room wtih me and got pissed off with the girls coz there was a bed booked for me but someone snuck in for free obviously. She was close to throwing stuff off a few beds that didnt look slept in.
She thankfully found me a double bed single room for the night but with shared facilities which were **** as! At least i had a tv, but with limited channel...hm. The girl said they would sort it out in the morning and id either get a dorm bed or may just stay in a single room for the other 2 nights.

But i had decided that i wasnt going to stay there any more than i had to, and since i had a early trip, i had to get up really early to ring another backpackers around the 'corner' and thankfully the person said i could check in at like 8am in the morning.

Now the guy at base tried to get me to stay by saying oh but we gave you a single room. wasnt very apologetic about teh whole fuss. I didnt get my money back since i had prebooked the accomodation through the travel agent.

So i got a taxi up to Captn Bobs backpackers and the taxi driver was agreeing that all the backpackers along King Street are very noisy and its hard to get a good night sleep if your the type of person who likes to stay off teh grog.
The new one, i paid for a single room, and it only had 28beds which was nice and we had a fantastic view over the bay. Very nice and homely. Didnt mind paying the extra for a nice place. Got to meet pple more easily too.

Now i also was meant to stay in ACB in auckland, but when the girls told me about it in Rotorua i was like hm no thanks might change it, and when i got to BOI i was like yup im going to stay in a hotel, splurge for the last 3 nights of my time in the country. So i booked in for The Quadrant, its up near the uni of auckland and near enough to the city but far away enough from the hussle and busle. First night i was on the ground floor and had a view of next doors garbo skip. Coz they were full that night i couldnt get a harbour view. The next morning i got upgraded to a harbour view which was nice! It was a studio room and while pple say its very tiny, i found it to be bigger than i thought it was going to be. Its fine for 1 person. Like i mean how long are you going to spend in your room? Paid only $90NZ a night which is around what a single room in a backpackers was so yeah. I have to say i did miss the company of meeting people but still, better to have peace and quiet and be stress free.

I did walk past ACB and its a massive 10storey building and not nice looking at all.

So yeah, stay in taupo, qtown, and um yeah thats all id say.