Many campgrounds are booked solid. Photo / Tania Whyte
Holiday parks in some of the North Island's best spots will be inundated with an exodus of Kiwis escaping the hustle and bustle of the cities.
Record numbers of Kiwis are seeing sell-out signs appear at hot-spots; with the surge in bookings due to the fact Kiwis aren't keen to travel internationally as Covid-19 continues to take its toll overseas.
That includes a campground on the East Coast, which has never previously turned away a camper; this summer they will have to.
Holiday Parks New Zealand chief executive Fergus Brown said 1.7 million guest nights had been booked in holiday parks around the country during January - a staggering 500,000 more than last summer.
"Because there's nowhere else to go, we will get our usual Kiwis and we will probably get some extras," he said.
"It will be very busy, especially in the first couple of weeks of January."
Some spaces were still available but Brown said those who had left holiday plans to the last minute needed to be quick to make sure they could get a booking.
Despite that, operators were worried about February and March when international tourists traditionally accounted for most of the bookings, he said.
He said the South Island seemed to be doing it tougher than the North Island this summer with the domestic market unable to make up the huge numbers the most popular spots attracted.
The Department of Conservation also expected more people than ever to use huts along the Great Walks with bednight bookings for the period up 23 per cent at October 31 and a 6 per cent increase in revenue across all 10 walks.
However Top 10 Holiday Parks chief executive David Ovendale said although they had seen a record winter thanks to Kiwis travelling, he was expecting summer to be much tougher.
"The Champagne cork only comes out of the bottle once," he said.
The 10 days after Christmas would be very busy but across its 50 holiday parks about 50 per cent of the clientele were international tourists and there was no way Kiwis could make up the shortfall entirely, he said.
He expected the middle of January would be significantly quieter but the worst would begin in late January as schools started back.
"Our true pain is still to come," he said. "We make 60 per cent of our revenue in four months of the year."
He agreed the South Island was hurting more because international tourists spent most of their time there.
Remote East Cape holiday spot, Maraehako Camping Ground said they had never turned a camper away but were expecting they would have to during the two busiest weeks from about December 22 to January 5.
A spokesman said the camping ground did not take bookings and operated on a first-come, first-served basis but the number of inquiries they were receiving was 80 per cent higher than last year. Most calls were coming from Aucklanders.
"I think we are the only place on the whole coast that isn't booked out - only because we don't take bookings."
He said business had already been higher than last year with quadruple the number of campers in October and triple the number in November.
Debbie Wright, owner of the Levin Kiwi Holiday Park said bookings for the entire summer were the best ever, though there were still a few gaps.
In Gisborne, the Waikanae Beach Top 10 Holiday Park, owned by the council's commercial arm Gisborne Holding Ltd, was fully booked over Christmas and New Year as usual but there was also greater demand in the surrounding weeks.
GHL commercial operations general manager Jeremy Raymond said they had a higher number of bookings for the whole of December and January which they had been experiencing since June.
In the Bay of Plenty, Pāpāmoa Holiday Resort owner David Aflallo said he had "absolutely no doubt we will be basically filled up" over the holiday period.
He said the desire of Kiwis to explore their own backyard was helping to balance out the lack of international guests with most coming from the "four-hour-drive radius" surrounding Bay of Plenty.
Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park manager Mark Hales said the park was fully booked for Christmas and New Year, which was similar to previous years, but demand had been up since coming out of lockdown.
He said demand during July, August and September was up 59 per cent on last year.
"It's been excellent, ever since Level 2 it's been huge. It's just been amazing, it's been fantastic."
In Rotorua, Blue Lake Top 10 Holiday Park manager Kelsi Hira said demand for the holiday period was "looking really good".
"We're really lucky, we have got a lot of our regular Kiwis back and a lot of new families choosing to camp now instead of being able to travel internationally. We're really, really happy - we've probably got about 10 days through that period where we're completely full already," she said.
Taranaki's Opunake Beach Kiwi Holiday Park owner Julian Harkness said they were fully booked until January 4 and even then there were only a few spots left. He said people were coming earlier and staying longer this year.
Tokomaru Bay Holiday Park owner Lisa Miller said for the past few months they had been seeing more campervans stopping in as Gisborne residents took the chance to get away for a night or two.
The park was almost fully booked for the Christmas-New Year period and had more bookings than usual after that with a few groups deciding to stay in the area after Rhythm and Vines.
But in the South Island it was a different story.
Louise McDonnell of Alpine Pacific Holiday Park in Kaikōura said they were "chocka blocka" from Christmas until January 10 but it was looking much quieter after that.
Similarly Woodend Beach Holiday Park near Christchurch was gearing up for its busiest two weeks ever straight after Christmas but manager Stephanie McLaren said things had been quiet up until now and they expected that to be the case also after the holiday rush.
Wanaka Lakeview Holiday Park manager Natalie Ward said they were fully booked over the holiday weeks thanks to regulars and nearby Rhythm and Alps but after that it was going to be a big step back compared with previous summers.
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