KEY POINTS:
Recreation groups are applauding Government moves to preserve the traditional Kiwi camping holiday.
Conservation Minister Chris Carter announced yesterday that 100 potential camping grounds on Department of Conservation land had been identified to make up for existing sites around the country being lost to development.
Four new spots will open this summer and a fifth by the middle of next year.
"Rises in land values in recent years have led to coastal land in particular being sold for residential development, but the Labour-led Government wants to ensure that the tradition of the Kiwi camping holiday is preserved," Mr Carter said.
Brendon Ward, chief executive of the New Zealand Recreation Association, said the increase in camping opportunities was another positive step in promoting the outdoors, following a recent announcement to allow trampers aged under 18 free accommodation in huts on New Zealand's major walking tracks.
"It's something we should value as New Zealanders, not only the access, but the quality of camps we have got around the country."
Camping had declined as apastime in recent years, but alot of this had to do withpeople lacking information.
"My observation, and this is backed up by some of our members, is that [camping] is still valued, and people are still doing it," Mr Ward said.
"The battle we have got is letting people know how easy it is and how accessible the campsites are."
One of the new DoC camping sites is at Canaan Downs, adjoining the Abel Tasman National Park.
It will accommodate about 50 people in an area popular with mountain bikers, trampers and cavers. Canaan Downs is the main access to the 176m marble shaft known as Harwoods Hole.
Other sites to open are in the Marlborough Sounds, Moturua Island in the Bay of Islands, Ox Bow Kiripapango campsite on the banks of the Ngaruroro River in Kaweka Forest Park, on the edge of Lake Arapuni, 45km from Tokoroa, and an extension to the campground at Port Jackson at the far tip of the Coromandel Peninsula.
