New Zealand Motor Caravan Association members at Waihi's Morgan Park for the Warm Up Party. Photo / file
New Zealand Motor Caravan Association members at Waihi's Morgan Park for the Warm Up Party. Photo / file
It’s a sad but common story: an idyllic waterfront campground sold and lost to future generations of campers thanks to high land values and the site’s development potential.
But this time it’s a happy story about the opposite happening - and in a tourism hotspot.
An increasingly wealthy camper andcaravan group is providing more properties for a swelling membership so that instead of one holiday park being sold for development, it has been preserved for holidaymakers on wheels.
NZ Motor Caravan Association chief executive Bruce Lochore said the group had bought Te Anau’s Manapouri Motorhome & Caravan Park, and many other properties as well.
“The Manapouri property was ideal for our members because it already has facilities like toilets and showers,” he said of the 2.6ha lot at 170 Hillside-Manapouri Rd.
“Mostly, when we buy, it’s more like a paddock and we just fence it and put in a gate, then members drive in. But the Manapouri situation was different.”
The association knew it would become a popular place for its 120,000 members, not only because of its layout and idyllic location but also for the existing campsite facilities. Everything was already set up for caravan and motorhome travellers to park, and the landscaping was mature, so it was perfect.
“Members often tell us they want the option of more facilities at parks on a user-pays basis, and Manapouri fitted the bill,” Lochore said.
Members can stay for an affordable $5 per adult per night. Children stay free. Essential services like fresh water, a dump station, and rubbish and recycling bins are free to members. Charging stations for e-bikes and for power to motorhomes are also available on a pay-by-use basis.
To join the association, people pay an initial $240, then an annual $90.
More of us are motoring to picturesque spots around Aotearoa. Photo / Northland NZ
“We’ve now got 63,000 memberships but many of those are couples, so we have around 120,000 members,” Lochore said.
And from 52 properties a year ago, the association now owns 55 and wants to buy more, as long as new additions fit with the budget.
Last April the association board received an update on the property expansion from president Sharron King.
The association’s 52nd park was at Riversdale Beach in the Wairarapa. The organisation planned to buy or lease 10 new properties including a leased site at Kaiaua, north of Miranda on the Firth of Thames.
Site works were finished last April at the park, which is only 80km south of Auckland. That proximity to the big city makes the site very popular, Lochore said.
The Allenton RFC camp has opened in Ashburton, as well as new parks at Masterton and Koromiko near Picton. Taupō Racecourse is another newly opened site, and is leased.
New parks are also planned on a leased Te Awamutu site and at Warrington, near Dunedin, where the association owns land.
in December, the association moved its park in the tourist mecca from Taupō Airport to the racecourse at 471 Centennial Drive. “It was a long time in the process,” said Lochore. “The airport needed the land back but the council worked with us to establish the new park on leased land.”
The association had an annual income of $10m in 2021, mainly from new members joining and others renewing.
It had total assets of $20.9m by September 2021, but Lochore said it was now nearer $23m.
“This boom was happening before the pandemic,” he said. “We very rarely advertise externally. Members are promoting the value of membership to new people who then join.
“Word of mouth is strong. We continually survey newer members. We ask why they joined and what they knew and why they renewed.
“We continue to evolve and give members what they’re looking for. We’re proud of our history but we’re delivering for the changing nature of our members.”
Members once had an average age in the mid-60s but these days it’s more in the 50s, Lochore said, and more families and people in their 40s and 50s were becoming new members.
People pay high prices for motorhomes, from around $25,000 to $150,000. And now they’re buying more luxurious and bigger vehicles costing up to $400,000, he said.
A maximum of 10 days’ stay is mandated - “and we don’t want to be like American trailer trash parks”.
People usually stay about two nights and move on, then two more nights, and that’s the pattern. More new facilities are planned throughout New Zealand and Lochore said he looked forward to announcing further expansion of the association.
Not everything is sunny in camper-land, however: the group’s 2022 annual report cited grey wastewater discharges into the ground - “long a contentious issue”. Two members were suspended for doing that.
The association also took action against other poor behaviour.
“Another complaint was laid against members exhibiting a self-entitled attitude, parking across three or four spaces in front of a shop then doubling down on it by verbally bullying the owner when he called them on it. They did resign their membership; however, the disciplinary committee recommended a note be placed on their file that they not be permitted to rejoin for a period of five years,” the report said.
