Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Hawke's Bay's Stoney Creek Ranch holiday camp closes, citing health and safety costs

Hawkes Bay Today
19 Jun, 2018 08:10 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Stoney Creek ranch at Maraekakaho near Hastings. Photo / Paul Taylor

Stoney Creek ranch at Maraekakaho near Hastings. Photo / Paul Taylor

Hawke's Bay holiday and school camp Stoney Creek Ranch has closed, despite being fully booked for a year ahead.

Although the camp hopes to some day reopen, remedying health and safety concerns from ageing trees, storm damage and the need to upgrade cabins and other facilities, are too expensive.

Manager Liz Wilson announced the closure on Facebook last week and Stoney Creek Ranch Trust chairman Colin Lister confirmed it yesterday.

Lister said the trust hoped to find ways of reopening in the future, despite the difficulty of raising finance to run the camp and its programmes for the mainly needy groups and individuals who use it.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
No more fun on the flying fox at Stoney Creek Ranch Camp, Maraekakaho. Photo / Sarah Gully
No more fun on the flying fox at Stoney Creek Ranch Camp, Maraekakaho. Photo / Sarah Gully

Founded more than 30 years ago by Barry Andrews, who died in March this year, the camp is on 20ha 25km west of Hastings, off State Highway 50 near Maraekakaho. It slept up to 96 and had an average occupancy of more than 30 weeks a year, Lister said.

It was particularly popular with schools and such agencies as Birthright and others supporting special needs, and also ran usually fully booked five-day programmes in each week of the school holidays.

Wendy Benson, 15, Jocaia Laking, 12,Kushla Karakassidis, 12 and Kushla Linton, 13, at Soney Creek Ranch in 2004. Photo / Duncan Brown
Wendy Benson, 15, Jocaia Laking, 12,Kushla Karakassidis, 12 and Kushla Linton, 13, at Soney Creek Ranch in 2004. Photo / Duncan Brown

A decision to close had been made in January and two staff had been made redundant, but Wilson and fellow director Mark Town-Treweek ran a minimal camp during school holidays in April, using only facilities that could be used safely.

Lister said the camps couldn't safely provide the programmes for which it was known - such as horse-riding and motorbikes as well as the flying-fox.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Groups and people who have booked were being refunded, including those fully booking the two five-day July school holiday programmes.

The trust was expected to start considering options at a meeting next week.

Some of the almost 150 messages responding to the Facebook post called for support to help reopen the camp.

Wilson, who has been at Stoney Creek for most of the past 20 years, said on Facebook she was "really sorry" to announce the closure.

Discover more

Business

Watch NZH Local Focus: Crowdfunding call for Hawke's Bay bat boutique

09 Dec 06:29 AM

Awards celebrate Hawke's Bay Surf Life Saving clubs

19 Jun 07:12 AM

"We have tried so hard as a trust to keep camp running on the bare minimum, but sadly with some massive health and safety issues and some very expensive maintenance jobs we are unable to find the hundreds of thousands needed to bring down trees that are old, rebuild activities in Health and Safety areas etc," she said.

"We are heartbroken to say the least," she said.

Smaller camps based in the woolshed and using tents are a possibility, she said, and it was hoped the camp could reopen. "But for the next few years this is not possible."

Stoney Creek was one of the last camps of its type in New Zealand, especially in relation to school holiday camps.

Demand had always been strong but particularly since the closure of Camp David in 2009, after 22 years running similar programmes at a site alongside the Tukituki River near Havelock North.

Lister said closures of similar camps throughout the country were expected as operators were unable to sustain the costs.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Tamatea Primary School principal Wiremu Pearson said his Year 5 and 6 pupils had used the camp until about 18 months ago, and now used a site near Rotorua, partly to get the pupils out of their normal environment.

But he said schools elsewhere wanting to provide their pupils with a different experience would come to Hawke's Bay, he said.

"We enjoyed our times at Stoney Creek," he said.

"The team were very approachable, they had wonderful values, the food was outstanding - and the kids enjoyed the pancakes on Fridays."

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today

'Amazing achievements': Hawke's Bay Export Awards finalists announced

07 Jul 04:25 AM
Hawkes Bay Today

‘He’s smooth. He’s a practised thief’: Former club CEO had a secret criminal past

07 Jul 04:10 AM
Hawkes Bay Today

One lane reopens after diesel spill on Napier-Taupō road

07 Jul 04:03 AM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

'Amazing achievements': Hawke's Bay Export Awards finalists announced

'Amazing achievements': Hawke's Bay Export Awards finalists announced

07 Jul 04:25 AM

The winners will be celebrated at Toitoi Hawke’s Bay Arts and Events Centre on July 31.

‘He’s smooth. He’s a practised thief’: Former club CEO had a secret criminal past

‘He’s smooth. He’s a practised thief’: Former club CEO had a secret criminal past

07 Jul 04:10 AM
One lane reopens after diesel spill on Napier-Taupō road

One lane reopens after diesel spill on Napier-Taupō road

07 Jul 04:03 AM
'Massive cleanup': Fire damages Napier cocktail bar just months after opening

'Massive cleanup': Fire damages Napier cocktail bar just months after opening

07 Jul 04:03 AM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP