Camping season in full swing
Despite a recent bout of bad weather, and the lure of post-Christmas sales, South Canterbury holiday parks are reporting a steady flow of bookings as peak camping season begins.
Timaru Top Ten Holiday Park owner and operator Gordon Collister said bookings so far had been in line with previous years.
‘‘It’s been about normal [in terms of bookings], a reasonably typical build up to Christmas and we’ll be pretty much booked out for New Years with the best part of 400 people in,’’ Collister said.
‘‘I think everybody stays home for the Boxing Day sales these days, it used to be really busy from Boxing Day but now it builds up more slowly.’’
Collister said Christmas and New Year were always the peak booking times, although they would continue to have a couple of hundred people booked in up until Easter, and with the mid-to-long term weather forecast looking okay for the next few days they expected more people to start booking in.
‘‘Having a couple of nice days like this [Friday], we’ve had a couple of people from the West Coast turn up looking for some sunshine.’’ He said if the weather stayed good they would host their usual barbecue for the guests on December 30.
‘‘We feed whoever is here which is a pretty big effort for ourselves and the campers to put on a barbecue of the evening.’’
Collister said they spend a ‘‘fair bit of time’’ on maintenance in the build up to peak season but he had been running the holiday park for a long time and knew what to expect.
According to a NIWA soil moisture report release the week before Christmas, substantial rainfall across the South Island meant many areas were wetter than normal, with South Canterbury up to 40 millimetres wetter than normal.
Fairlie Holiday Park owner Mary-Jane Gilbert said she didn’t think the recent bad weather had affected booking numbers but from conversations she’d had she believed fewer tourists were coming to New Zealand after a difficult year for the country.
‘‘The roads are much quieter,’’ Gilbert said. ‘‘It’s everything that’s going on in New Zealand at the moment – the mosque shooting, measles, the Government – I don’t think it’s the weather.’’
She said despite the smaller number of international tourists the holiday park was still busy with Kiwis and more would be booking in before the New Year.
‘‘We’re a family camp so we always have families here from Christchurch and other places,’’ she said.
‘‘We’re all prepared so we don’t get in anyone’s way and there’s lots of people coming tomorrow [Saturday], it’s good.’’
Sam Small and his partner’s son Kian Temaiharoa, were heading to Lake Benmore yesterday, loaded with gear for recreational activities.
Small described the busy atmosphere of the region’s campgrounds at New Year as ‘‘quite good’’.
‘‘It’s got quite a good party atmosphere going for it,’’ he said.
‘‘I enjoy just being able to get away and do some outdoor activities. Hunting, boating, motorbiking, fishing, and just socialising.’’ Rachel Chittock, coowner of Geraldine’s Farmyard Holiday Park, said she was too busy checking in guests to comment.