After staying at 50 quite different campsites in the South Island, we were reminiscing as we decided to pick a few favourites. Actually, it wasn’t too hard to do, and being of like minds, we were both in agreement too. Our New Zealand Motor Caravan Association Directory (known to members as The Bible) lists virtually hundreds to places for members to stay overnight, so we just tried a fraction of what was available during our South Island trip. So in no particular order, we present our favourites.
Park Over Properties, known as POPs, offer safe overnight parking on private land for members, and can range from a suburban home, to a smallholding. There are over 300 POPs throughout the country, and usually a minimum of services are offered, such as access to water. POPS are quite often free, but we like to offer a donation for the use the property giving us safe off road parking. Our favourite, purely for the glorious view in the middle of nowhere, was at Lochaburn, in Central Otago. Here we stayed overnight looking out over tussock covered farmland, with a horse sharing the paddock with us. We did wonder if we would ever make it up the steep and challenging dirt road, but once we finally arrived, the peaceful location in rural surroundings was well worth the effort.
Lochaburn POP, in a rural country setting
Low Cost Parks are also on private land and usually offer more facilities such as water, power, toilets, showers, and charge a fee to cover these costs. Our favourite was at Geraldine, a beautiful property reached by driving down a tree lined sweeping driveway. These property owners love company and have set their grounds up with power points, a laundry room, and a shower and toilet available for use in the garage. The friendly little poodle liked to check out the visitors, and I was happy to check out those happy clucking chickens in the rear of the property. Happy Hours are encouraged, and the friendly hosts told us that they are planning on extending their property to allow for even more overnight guests. This LCP wins hands down for the beautifully planted grounds, facilities, and friendliness.
Parked up in Geraldine LCP
NZMCA owns a number of properties for members to use and we visited most of them in the South Island. They all offer hard standing, some but not all have water available, usually they have no facilities for rubbish. The property at Franz Josef won our vote on “location, location, location”, situated as it was just a short stroll from the alpine village. It was ringed with trees, and had the extra advantage of water, a dump station, and rubbish bins. And best of all, these NZMCA properties charge a very modest charge per night – we really can’t do better than that for safe, off road parking. We stayed several nights at this delightful spot and walked up to both the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers.
Franz Josef NZMCA site
Franz Josef Glacier
We stayed at several Domains, which are generally large grassed recreation areas owned and administered by the local City Council. Facilities vary from domain to domain, and our favourite was at Karamea. The rates were reasonable, and although the facilities were a little on the old side, we found everything we needed here for a comfortable stay, power, toilets and showers, and a laundry. And a grand-stand, if we felt like making use of it, looking over the large playing fields, but no cell phone coverage or internet in this part of the country.
Plenty of room at Karamea Domain
Karamea Estuary
Some pubs offer their grounds to campers and usually have power points and facilities. Seddonville Hotel on the West Coast was our favourite. There was a nice little grassed area to park in, power points, laundry facilities, and a shower and toilet available. But what made this a stand out place, was the friendliness of the hosts, and the delicious meals available in the hotel. Nothing was too much trouble, and we enjoyed our stay here so much that we returned again a week later on the return from our trip to Karamea. The highlight of our stay would have to be attending the Anzac Day Dawn Service, and being so warmly welcomed by the locals.
Parked up at Seddonville pub
Anzac morning breakfast in the pub
Motor Camps need no explanation, these commercial ventures are usually very well maintained and offer good facilities. However, we feel that some of the prices demanded these days are very expensive, and tend to be aimed at the tourists rather than the local market. From time to time when there was nothing else available we stayed in a motor camp, and our pick would be Manapouri Motorhome and Caravan Park. This near new camp was well set out with wonderful facilities, and as a bonus, very moderately priced too.
Manapouri Motorhome and Caravan Park
Lake Manapouri
So that’s our personal picks for the trip. We stayed at such a variety of places, and sometimes when planning to stay in a particular town, there was a variety of options available and we were spoilt for choice. Wonder what our travelling companions would choose for their favourites?
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