The Junction Hotel is a hotel at 700 Pollen Street in Thames, on the Coromandel Peninsula, rated 4.4 from 150 Google reviews. Main-street hotels like this one — the old pubs that anchor most small New Zealand towns — trade on character rather than gloss: tidy, unfussy rooms, a public bar where locals gather, and hosts who know the tide times, the walking tracks and where to eat late. A good one gives you a genuinely quiet bed despite the main-road position, reliable hot water, and honest local advice no booking app can match. It pays to ask when the rooms were last refurbished and whether the kitchen serves past the dinner rush, because standards in country hotels vary more than city travellers expect. On Pollen Street, The Junction puts Thames's gold-rush buildings, cafés and the Firth of Thames shoreline within an easy stroll.