Summer holidaymakers set up camp in Northland after rainy start

Dylan Henderson, Matt Henderson, Jane Bittman and Noah Henderson set up their campsite at Department of Conservation's Uretiti Beach on Boxing Day. Photo / Michael Cunningham

After a rainy start to the festive season, summer camping holidays are getting into full swing in Northland.

Jane Bittman, partner Matt Henderson and kids Dylan and Noah Henderson, were among a number of campers setting their campsites up at the Department of Conservation's Uretiti Beach campground on Boxing Day.

The family, from Warkworth, were setting up a site with friends from Auckland's North Shore.

"We were meant to come Christmas Eve but, because of the weather, we decided to put it off."

Altogether there would be 16 people in their camping party. Bittman said Uretiti was a regular trip for the group.

As well as tents for sleeping, their set-up would include gazebos as kitchen and lounge areas. Once the set-up was complete, they were looking forward to hitting the beach over the coming week.

"They [the kids] take the boards, we've got the beach chairs."

Bittman said they also had board games and there would be games of spotlight at night.

"There's no TVs, no phones. The idea is for them not to have devices."

Another group of campers at Uretiti had camped through the bad weather on Christmas Eve.

The first of the group, who are from Auckland, had arrived nearly a week before Christmas.

They said at its worst, the water was about 15cm deep.

"We had water features."

While a few of their items were floating, there was no serious damage and it was just a matter of drying things out. They were hoping the wind would die down and they could get on with enjoying summer.

According to Metservice figures, 78.8mm of rain fell in Whangārei on Christmas Eve and 9.8mm on December 23.

In Kerikeri, 30.6mm fell on Christmas Eve, and 8.8mm the day before.

Fine weather with southwest breezes is forecast across the region today. High temperatures will range from 19C to 25C across the various centres.