Some of New Zealand’s campsites have been welcoming guests for a remarkably long time. Wendy Montrose digs deep into some historic grounds with a fascinating history.
In the early 1840s, colonist Wakefield travelled up the Whanganui River with a tent ‘composed of unbleached calico’. He may have been the first Kiwi to have a camping holiday, but it was another 80 years before it became a popular pastime in New Zealand. The Automobile Association and local councils set up campgrounds for motorists – motor camps – in the 1920s and camping became a national obsession. Today, despite the loss of some of our favourite places to stay, there’s still a campground to fit every budget.
1. Hanmer River Bridge NZMCA Park
The New Zealand Motor Caravan Association recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of its parks network. Today, there are 54 parks nationwide, some of which are in places of historical or cultural significance. The very first NZMCA member-only park opened in 2001, 7 km out of Hanmer Springs. A spacious site on the town side of the Hanmer River Bridge, the park has room for 60 motor caravans – but there are no toilets or water available. Website: nzmca.org.nz
2. Whites Bay Campsite, Blenheim. DOC
Named after the American whaler Black Jack White, Whites Bay/Pukatea is where the first Cook Strait telegraph wire came ashore on the South Island in 1866. The camp is close to the sheltered beach and surrounded by regenerating native bush and the cable station is still there. You can swim, kayak and fish in the bay and DOC has opened a number of pleasant short walks from the camp. Popular with the locals for its gently sloping beach, Whites Bay/Pukatea is patrolled by the Rarangi Surf Club in summer. This standard camp with 67 unpowered sites, flush toilets and cold showers doesn’t allow dogs to visit. Website: doc.govt.nz
3. Hastings Top 10 Holiday Park
Every summer in the 1960s, our family hired a caravan and trundled over the Taupō Napier Road to spend two weeks at Windsor Park in central Hastings. The camp isn’t called that now. It started life in the 1920s as the Motorists’ Camp at Beatson’s Park: ‘the best camp in the Dominion’ according to the Evening Post in 1927. Changing its name to Windsor Park and later Hastings Holiday Park, it is now part of the Top 10 family. Recognised in last year’s TripAdvisor Travellers Choice Excellence awards, Hastings Top 10 Holiday Park is only a half-hour walk to town or 10 minutes on your bike and makes a great base for experiencing the delights of the Hawke’s Bay. Website: hastingstop10.co.nz
4. Motueka NZMCA Park
This camp is just a 20-minute walk to town with access to a walking and cycling trail at the gate. A short walk takes you to the old Motueka Wharf. Nationally significant because of its stone construction, the wharf is a remnant of early coastal shipping and the development of the Motueka district. The wreck of the Janie Seddon lies in the mud nearby, an undignified resting place after her glittering military career spanning both world wars. The area is also culturally and historically significant to Māori who migrated south from the Kāwhia and Taranaki coast in the 1820s, attracted by the fertile soils and benign climate. Hapū of Ngāti Rārua Ātiawa occupied the area known to them as Puketūtū and subsequently lived permanently at Motueka where they are now recognised as tangata whenua. Website: nzmca.org.nz
5. Orewa Beach Holiday Park
On my first visit to Orewa Beach, the wind howled off the sea and the water teemed with kite surfers tearing along at breakneck speed and just managing to avoid each other in the melee. Even though it’s just 30 minutes from Auckland, that’s about as fast as the pace gets here. Orewa Beach Holiday Park and its predecessors have been welcoming campers for a break from the city for almost 100 years, somehow escaping the demand for residential land that has taken out other popular camps. Today, 300 sites cater for everything from tents to buses and fill up quickly in the summer so it pays to book early. Right on the beach, the park is a 10 minute walk from town and is a great base for trips to Tiritiri Matangi Island from Gulf Harbour. It’s close to the surf club patrolled area for swimming and you can get a round of golf in at Gulf Harbour’s international course if that’s your thing. Website: aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/ parks-recreation
6. Charleston Motor Camp
The village of Charleston, 30km south of Westport, was founded after an 1867 gold rush giving rise to upwards of 37 hotels and New Zealand’s first Hannah’s Shoe Shop in the same year. Nowadays it’s an adventure tourist village offering caving experiences in nearby limestone caves with glow worms to rival Waitomo. Charleston Motor Camp is the perfect base to enjoy stunning coastal tracks, rainforest train trips, a seal colony and more. Punakaiki is just down the road, and the friendly camp is a short walk to the beach and the Charleston Tavern. Website: charlestonmotorcamp.co.nz
7. Dargaville NZMCA Park
What was once Thompson’s Boat Yard, this NZMCA site boasts two historic boat sheds, one still with a working slipway and the other a Friday night happy hour spot. Both sheds illustrate early New Zealand commercial construction techniques and tell the fascinating story of Swede, Erik Thompson. He set up a boat building business near Dargaville in the 1870s where he earned national renown building a range of craft and supplying whaleboats for Antarctic expeditions. Early last century the business moved to this site where it continued to be run by Erik’s son and grandson for over six decades until closing in 1988 after 118 years of operation. Close to town, this well developed park has plenty of room and can cater for even the big rigs. Website: nzmca.org.nz
8. Lyell Campsite, Buller. DOC
One of my favourite places, this camp is the site of the historic gold-rush town of Lyell. A peaceful spot these days populated mostly by weka, it’s hard to imagine the bustling town of the 1800s, complete with banks, newspaper offices and hotels. Informative signs describe the town in its heyday and tell the story of Bridget ‘Biddy’ Goodwin, one of the more interesting characters of the time. A short walk takes you to the old town cemetery, a sight not to be missed. With its iron fenced graves under soaring beech trees, you’ll feel like you’ve entered nature’s cathedral. The intrepid can cycle the Old Ghost Road or walk to the historic settlements of Gibbstown, Zalatown and 8 Mile, plus the Alpine Battery site, all from this lovely campground. Some 18 unpowered sites are spread over the grassed camp with toilets and a barbecue available. Website: doc.govt.nz
