Hardy campers
Beachside at the Amberley Beach Camping Ground, Ashleigh Pierce and 5-year-old daughter Alizae Furze-Pierce were making the most of a quiet day with friends Craig and Natasha Lyell and their children, Shakyla, 7, Tyreece, 4, and Phoenix, 3 months.
‘‘It’s close to the park for the kids, it’s cheap and it’s away from home,’’ Pierce said.
It was the fourth year the Christchurch group had stayed at the camping ground, but this year they took a trailer that had been converted into a kitchen and a shower.
The families’ tents were flooded last year, so this time they set up on a different side of the camping ground. ‘‘The first year we came we were just so unorganised. We weren’t prepared for anything,’’ Natasha Lyell said.
They advised other campers to be prepared, including taking a fire extinguisher, just in case.
‘‘It’s camping, it’s not day-to-day life,’’ Craig Lyell said.
Rangiora’s Kim and Hamish Upston normally went camping near Lake Benmore, in the central South Island, but this year decided to try somewhere closer to home.
They planned to stay with 11-year-old daughter Joanna at the Ashley Gorge Holiday Park, northwest of Christchurch, for two weeks and had celebrated a sunny Christmas Day with friends at the camping ground. ‘‘No phones, no internet, no nothing – you just actually have to have a conversation,’’ Kim Upston said.
Wet weather had failed to stop them enjoying the break, with the children still keen to jump in the nearby Ashley River as soon as they woke up, she said.
She advised other campers to ‘‘sit on your chair, take your watch off and just enjoy the day’’.
Ashley Gorge Holiday Park owner Jan Shelton said campers had not been bothered by bad weather, but many had called with concerns after the Canterbury District Health Board issued a toxic algae bloom warning for the Ashley River last week.
She said the problem was much further downstream, near Waikuku and State Highway 1, and the Ashley Gorge area was ‘‘absolutely clear and swimmable’’.
Overcast and foggy weather at Lake Lyndon, near Porters Pass, did not worry Eddie and Larissa Karst, who camp at the lake with son Nate, 6, and Eddie’s daughter Paige, 14, every year after Christmas. They had transformed an old truck to contain a kitchen, lounge and sleeping areas for the family and their two dogs, Fade and Sid.
Larissa Karst said spending time together away from the everyday pressures of home and work kept the family coming back every year. ‘‘There’s no cellphone reception, no TV, no power.’’
The family advised other campers to look after those around them and take all their rubbish with them.
‘‘There’s no point ruining it for everybody,’’ Eddie Karst said.
nicole.mathewson@press.co.nz