Kaiapoi – brand new NZMCA Park

With Cyclone Gabrielle wrecking havoc in the North Island, and not being sure if she would travel down south, we decided to stay in the Christchurch area for a few more days.  This seemed more sensible than our earlier plan to travel up the coast to Kaikoura.  Staying at Sunley House Pop with all those tall trees surrounding the property had me worrying if they would blow down on us in the strong winds.  So we moved 10km or so up the road to Kaiapoi.  The brand new  Kaiapoi NZMCA Park had just opened the previous day, so we were delighted to be one of the very early customers.

This new park is built on the substantial red zoned area, (previously a large subdivision)  from the massive 2011 Christchurch earthquake.  When the Sunday evening earthquake rocked the caravan, you can imagine that we were a little nervous, until we read that the quake was situated in the North Island, and not down here in Christchurch.

This new camp has a one way circular road, with gravel parking around the edge, or parking on the grass in the middle.  Being a former housing area there are many trees dotted around.  Fresh water and rubbish facilities are available, and there is a dump station in the next street, just a short distance away.  We arrived on the second day it was opened, and there were 12 vans on site that evening, with 20 parked up on the following night.  Not too bad for the first few days, we reckon.

Kaiapoi NZMCA Park

No more housing can be built on this red zoned land, so it is good that other low impact activities like sports fields and a large enclosed dog park are making use of the land.  Another great idea in this area  is the Food Forest, quite a large area built around many fruit trees.  Other items are planted in the gardens, I noticed many pumpkin plants spreading about and just starting to flower, and plenty of thorny berry bushes with not a single fruit on them.  I collected some apples and pears plus a few peaches from old mature trees to take back to the caravan.  All these trees would have been part of neighbouring home gardens before all the houses were destroyed in the earthquake.

Food Forest

Arriving back in camp after yet another visit to the laundromat, we were approached by a reporter who wanted to get our views about the new NZMCA park.  He was interested about our SI trip, and how many of these parks we had visited on our travels.  We told him we very impressed with this brand new one, he took our photo for the article and promised to send us a copy of his picture.  He works for a weekly newspaper, so we would have left for home before the next issue is published, I expect.  

The friendly reporter

Kaiapoi was an important trading hub with the Maori people and the Kaiapoi River and surrounding waterways were used to transport pounamu (greenstone) from the Arahura River, and mutton-birds from Stewart Island.  These days the river is used by pleasure boats and cruise boats, including the Kaiapoi River Queen.  There was a trip scheduled in the weekend after we had departed.  So we will certainly have to return to this town and have a lunch or dinner cruise of the wonderful looking boat. 

I really fancy a trip on this!

We came cross this lovely old footbridge, the Mandeville Bridge.  This was constructed in 1874 to allow school children to walk to the nearby Kaiapoi School, and has  Historic Place Category 2.

The Mandeville Footbridge

Robin had been chatting to the custodian who told him about the Hellers factory Shop, quite a drawcard to the locals it seems.  We had passed the factory in our travels but were not aware that they sold to the public as well.  So before we hooked the caravan up on the morning we departed, we took a quick trip to the Hellers Shop.  My goodness, such a lot of bargains, no wonder the locals go there in droves.  We came away with bacon, sausages, meatballs and hamburger patties, so that refilled our caravan freezer.  Then it was time to move on again, goodbye to Kaiapoi and hello to Kaikoura.

Hellers Factory Shop