Holiday parkers in for long haul
Dozens of people have chosen to live at an Invercargill holiday park fulltime. Evan Harding reports.
MAUREENMcDougall was lonely. Twelve years ago, her partner of 40-plus years had died, and she was living alone in her flat in Invercargill.
A people person, she wanted company, so she sold her flat, bought a caravan and moved into a holiday park. The 85-yearold now says she’s never looked back.
McDougall is one of at least 70 people living fulltime at the Beach RoadHoliday Park in Otatara, near Invercargill.
The number of full-timers has more than doubled in the past four years.
About 45 of the 70 live in caravans, often with conservatories attached and with their own piece of grass and garden.
The other 25-or-so full-timers live in cabins on the site, and are mostly seasonal workers, including shearers and meat workers, or are between jobs and can’t find housing in Invercargill.
Affectionately known as ‘‘camp mum’’, McDougall loves ‘‘Camp mum’’ Maureen McDougall, right, has been at Beach Road Holiday Park for around 12 years alongside longterm permanent neighbours, above from left, Jean Anderson, Larry O’dea and Lillian Taylor.
the lifestyle.
She cleans the park kitchen every morning where she gets to meet people of all varieties, and the work keeps her active in old age.
And she relaxes in her fully self-contained caravan, which has a conservatory attached, spends time in her gardens and enjoys barbecues and chatting with her park neighbours.
While McDougall’s reason for moving in was to combat loneliness, others had different motives.
For Jean Anderson, who arrived 15 years ago, it was financial.
After her husband died she purchased a 25-foot caravan with a built on conservatory and
garage, which were already onsite at the park.
‘‘I didn’t have enough in savings to live in the comfort I liked, so I sold my house in town [for $110,000] and I bought this little place here [for $32,000].
‘‘So I had enough money in the bank to live comfortably, and if I want to go buy something I could buy it.’’
She enjoys the holiday park lifestyle and doesn’t miss living in a house.
‘‘There’s only me so why do I need a big house? I have everything I need here
[including flower and vegetable garden of her own].
‘‘I love it here, there’s tuis and bellbirds and we feed them all, it’s very peaceful and quiet and lovely.’’
Jean’s sister and daughter had also recently moved into the park, on different sites, so family was close by.
Larry O’dea, 91, who is sitting out the front of his caravan enjoying the sun when the Sunday Star-Times arrives, says he moved into the park 16 years ago after losing his house at Otatara through a divorce.
He purchased his caravan and attached hut onsite for $12,000.
‘‘I quite enjoy it here, it’s probably not for everyone but for a bachelor like myself, it suits me. And there’s a lot of good people here who will help you out. The other daymy good neighbourmowed my lawn for me,’’ he said.
‘‘Little acts like that make it.’’ The park lifestyle was a cheaper form of living for those people who were up against it financially, O’dea added.
‘‘You could say birds of a feather flock together, and more or less get on with one another.’’ He has no plans to move. ‘‘They will probably cart me out in a box. I will be here til then.’’
Three little barking dogs are on hand when Lillian Taylor greets the Star-Times from her caravan site, where she has been living with husband Possum for the past four years. She says living in a holiday park is a lifestyle choice for the couple, and she is happier in a small space than in a big house with lots of stuff.
‘‘The smaller the better ... some of the family think we are nuts, but however,’’ she says.
‘‘It’s just us, we are quite happy the way we are, we like the lifestyle. It’s nice and open and friendly and we were able to pick our possy and we just made it our little spot.’’
They were looking to sell the caravan so they could build a small unit on the same location in the park.
Neighbours wandered over to her pad for a coffee and a chat and she fed the birds daily.
‘‘It’s a good lifestyle, I don’t regret it at all.’’
With cabin space at the holiday park still required for holiday-makers passing through, park owner Arty Shirley says there isn’t room for manymore full-timers.
He regularly turns away people who are looking to live onsite in buses or caravans.
Shirley purchased the 15-acre park four-and-a-half years ago and runs it with his son, Bevan, while other family members also help out, and they have done a lot of improvement work in that time.
‘‘It’s a bit of a treasure out here,’’ Bevan says.
‘‘It seems to be a place where people arrive and don’t leave.’’
Parties aren’t allowed, with Shirley saying they ‘‘don’t put up with it for one night’’.
‘‘We have got 70 or 80 people living here and we have to consider them, so if you have got three or four people being noisy w....s, I have got no problem telling them to shut up.’’
The park was close to Oreti Beach and the area has walking tracks, bike tracks and horse riding.
‘‘It’s just a really beautiful area, nice and laid back ... you can’t really complain.’’
The permanent residents make up about 65 to 70 per cent of business at the park, he says.
They own their own caravans and pay aweekly fee for parking on the land, starting from $90, plus power costs.
‘‘So long as the homes are relocatable, it works quite well for them,’’ Bevan says.
‘‘If they are good people and they are paying on time and there’s no police cars coming out, then bloody good.’’
It was an attractive lifestyle choice for many, not least because it was a cheaper way of living than conventional housing, given the cost of land was taken out of the equation.
‘‘I don’t know why the Government isn’t doing that for people, making leases on Crown land so people have somewhere to live, make it more affordable.’’