Bad news if you’re still to book a camping getaway: many of New Zealand’s most popular sites are already heavily – or fully – booked for the summer holidays.
“We’ve got 49 properties around the country and they all have slightly nuanced peaks, but from Boxing Day till about the 10th or the 11th of January, you would either have to be very lucky or very flexible to get something at this point,” says David Ovendale, CEO of Top 10 Holiday Parks Group.
He says many people even book for the next year as they leave a site in January.
If you’re hitting the road this summer and planning to take your cat or dog with you, it’s time to start thinking about how you can get them adjusted to long car rides.
Pets
“There will still be limited availability in some places, but you will have to be open-minded and flexible to make it fit. It’s not that there are no sites at all, but the majority of places will be fairly heavily booked, and it’ll be harder to get exact dates.”
Bougie or budget?
So if you can still get a booking, what will camping cost you in 2025?
The range is enormous. A stay at the popular Lake Taupo Holiday Resort, with its thermally heated pools, hydroslides, tennis courts and swim-up bar, could set you back up to $182/night for a powered tent site (two adults and two children just after Christmas), while you’ll pay $30/night for the same family in some DOC sites – obviously minus the pool and hot tub situation, and sometimes minus a flushing loo too.
Pricier campsites are often closer to the beach, as many Kiwis see daily ocean dips as an essential part of a camping holiday.
Hahei Beach in the Coromandel is a perennial favourite, with a non-powered site costing around $139 a night for a family of four. In Motueka, the Top 10 will set you back $129 per night for two adults and two kids at peak time with facilities including a heated swimming pool, hot tub, free Wifi, jumping pillow and more. Costs also vary in many places depending on dates and length of stay.
Hahei beach, Hahei, Coromandel Peninsula.
AFP
DOC campsites often provide a more traditional, basic camping experience, which is reflected in their affordability. Standard sites can cost as little as $10 per adult per night, while basic campsites (which may only have toilets and water from a nearby stream) are often free or require a gold-coin donation. You’ll often pay around $20 per adult for a serviced campsite.
DOC sites are often in some stunning locations – like the crystal-clear waters of Matai Bay in Northland, White Horse Hill Campground in Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park or Tōtaranui beach in Abel Tasman National Park (one of the busiest campsites in the country).
There are other options outside the big holiday park groups and DOC, like private campsites and council or region-run sites, including freedom camping spots that can’t be booked in advance.
Each region runs differently. For example, bookings for Auckland Council sites can only be made six months in advance of the date you want to go.
Paddy Compter and her family go to Tawharanui Regional Park most years.
“It is pretty low-fi, just running water and long drops, but it is actual paradise, so you have to book well in advance to get a spot. Usually right on the six-month mark at midnight when they open up bookings, which is what we do.”
Tawharanui Regional Park.
Auckland Council website
Am I too late?
It’s still possible to go camping this summer, especially if you’re happy with a shorter break, aren’t fixed on a specific location, or are planning to head away later in January.
While many of the popular campsites are fully (or almost fully) booked during that peak period, there’s still availability in other lesser-known spots if you get organised soon and stay flexible with your dates or length of stay.
Some DOC campsites – like Waikari River Mouth in Hawke’s Bay, Robin Hood Bay near Blenheim, and St Bathans Domain in Central Otago – can’t be booked at all, so it’s worth trying your luck.
Robin Hood Bay, near the entrance to Te Whanganui/Port Underwood
Kennedy Warne
Of the 325 DOC sites on the website, only 200 are marked ‘bookable’, which means plenty remain up for grabs.
“There are definitely sites that you can’t book in advance, so those are all first-come first-served,” says DOC booking services manager Cam Hyland.
“People have all sorts of different ways of doing that. Sometimes they take the chance but have a backup plan, sometimes they call us and ask what it’s looking like.
“While we can’t predict the future, we can sometimes say things like ‘It’s full today and people don’t look like they are leaving soon’ or ‘there’s quite a bit of space right now, but we don’t know about tomorrow’.”
Thinking ahead
If you’ve got your heart set on the perfect patch of grass for next summer, it might not be so far-fetched to book at the end of this one (you can always ask about their cancellation policy if you want to change your mind later).
Anton Trist at the incredibly popular Camp Waipu Cove recommends that people looking for the best chance of a site there should go to their website on 7 March (their general booking day), as soon as it opens at 7am.
Camp Waipu Cove.
Supplied
“It can be hard to get in over Christmas and New Year’s as we have very few sites that don’t get rebooked each year (people who have booked a week the previous year get first option to have that same site again the following).
“Every year, we even have a handful of people who actually turn up physically on site, waiting for the office to open on that day, to give them the best chance of getting a booking, even if it’s not a total guarantee.”
David Ovendale, CEO of Top 10 Holiday Parks Group.
Supplied
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand