Kiwis love their holiday nostalgia
Every Boxing Day since 1973, Chris and Clarry Withers have packed up their camping gear and travelled five minutes down the road to holiday at Oakura Beach.
Back then, it was just the couple and their first-born son Blair but, as the years progressed, so too did the number of them camping at site 28 of the Oakura Beach Holiday Park, about 15 kilometres south of New Plymouth.
‘‘When our children were little and we were running our business, we could go and stay at the beach and the children and I were out there while my husband was working,’’ Chris said. ‘‘We could all have a beach holiday as well.’’
The relaxed atmosphere kept the family going back to the same site each year. ‘‘It’s just so good to now think that our children and their children loved the camp so much that they want to go back.’’
‘‘It’s just a bit of a tradition . . . This Christmas, we’ll have all three children and their children going to Oakura Beach.’’
Blair Withers now books a spot for his family at the same time, just four sites down at No 32, and said it was fond memories of camping with his family that kept him returning.
‘‘It just feels like paradise and it’s only five minutes from home. As a child, you have great memories from it and it’s just something that now my kids are starting to experience.’’
And Blair is not alone in his desire to return to a childhood campsite, the Bookabach 2018 Holiday Report revealed millennials were leading the charge in nostalgic holidays with 92 per cent surveyed wanting to recreate holiday memories.
Of the 430 Kiwis surveyed nine in 10 – 88 per cent – revisited or wanted to revisit a holiday location for sentimental reasons, and 76 per cent said a family holiday was one of their favourite childhood memories.
The owner of Sandspit Holiday Park in Warkworth, north of Auckland, said he prioritises returning families bookings and most of these re-booked before leaving each year. ‘‘I have some families that have been coming for decades and so you want to look after them.’’
The Christmas and New Year period is the most popular time to camp in New Zealand.
Fitzroy Beach Holiday Park owner Anna Crawford was expecting the New Plymouth facility to be ‘‘chocka’’ from Boxing Day. ‘‘There are groups of families that book out entire bays
. . . They come here every year with their families, some people book as they leave.’’
Top 10 Holiday Parks Association chief executive David Ovendale agreed with Crawford, saying the year’s busiest period for its 48 parks was from Boxing Day to January 3 – although it depended on what day of the week Christmas fell on.
‘‘Camping is a New Zealand thing, it’s part of our DNA and what that means is people take their camping seriously. The best time to book was yesterday and the next time to book is today, so get onto it.’’