Bay campgrounds send visitors packing
Fully-booked Golden Bay camp grounds are sending visitors elsewhere as tourists head to the region seeking last-minute accommodation.
All campsites and cabins at the camp grounds in Golden Bay have been fully-booked well into the new year, and vacancies after then are expected to fill up fast.
Totaranui Campground manager Simon Bayly said they were turning dozens of people down every day who were seeking lastminute accommodation, especially at night.
It was at maximum capacity until late January, with numbers slowly decreasing after that.
‘‘People are coming in all the time, and many quite late at night, and that’s despite the fact we have signs both sides of the hill to say we don’t have any vacancy.’’
He said many appear to be travelling this year without booking ahead, and it wasn’t just the young travellers seeking last-minute accommodation.
‘‘We have had the larger motorhomes of an older age group, who still haven’t planned ahead.’’
Pakawau Beach Park staff member Kaye Riordan said people who were departing the camp ground were re-booking for next year, to avoid missing out.
‘‘Come evening, we turn down people coming in looking for somewhere. That seems to be the shortage, they just want somewhere to crawl in for the night. It’s just knowing where to send people, especially if they aren’t selfcontained.’’
She said Golden Bay needed more accommodation options over the Christmas and New Year period.
‘‘It’s the travellers we feel sorry for; they have no idea about what it’s like here during the holiday season.’’
On both the Bookabach and Airbnb websites, most properties are also listed as fully-booked until at least mid-January, with some not having any availability until late February.
Collingwood Holiday Park is fully booked well into the new year, as is the Pohara Top 10 Holiday Park.
Wharariki Beach Holiday Park owner Dion Leigh said it was having an ‘‘exceptionally’’ busy month.
‘‘That’s due to the good weather. That first week of January is a lot of Kiwis, but they would have had to have booked it up to four months ago to have a spot here, because Europeans were booking me out since about seven months ago.’’