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The success of Catholic schools' religious education programmes has spurred the church to sell a camp it has owned for almost 70 years.
Knock Na Gree - which sold for $2 million to Auckland couple Simon and Yvette Feasey - covers about 13ha of native bush and flat land on West Coast Rd, Oratia, and includes part of the Oratia Stream.
Auckland diocese general manager Kerry Coleman said the camp had been used since it was built in 1939 to teach Catholic education to students during school holiday breaks.
But more Catholic schools now had their own religious programmes, Mr Coleman said.
"There is very strong Catholic education in these schools now, it has grown substantially.
"For instance, there are 22,000 Catholic students in the Greater Auckland area and 55 Catholic schools.
"In the 1940s there wasn't that opportunity to educate thosechildren," Mr Coleman said.
In later years the church hired the camp to Scouts, Girl Guides and other family and business groups.
But last year, it finally decided to sell. "We got to a point where we had to examine the use of the property in the strategic sense," Mr Coleman said.
"We had to evaluate if it was still prudent [to keep it]. We had to make progress, and it was not being used."
However, the church would miss the camp, Mr Coleman said.
"It's been a long-standing historic place of importance for the diocese.
"There's a certain tranquillity in the place. You can take bush walks and all sorts."
The money from the sale is to be invested until the church decides what else it could be used for.
The property has a hall and two accommodation blocks with sleeping room for up to 60 people, a two-bedroom cottage, meeting room, chapel, dining room and kitchen and laundry.
There is also a workshop, garages and a kiosk next to the stream.
The Feaseys, who run an air filtration business and have two preschool-aged children, live in the caretaker's residence - a three-bedroom bungalow on the site with office facilities.
But they hope to eventually make the hall into their permanent residence.
And that is just the beginning of the renovations.
The couple plan to turn the camp into a meditation and creative retreat and want to find a live-in family to run creative workshops for guests.
During the next 10 years they hope to open a cafe and have exhibition spaces. They are also setting up an 18-hole frisbee golf course.
Mrs Feasey said they are yet to name the camp but may be leaning towards a Maori name which reflects the retreat.
Knock Na Gree means "hill of the brave".
The couple have not yet done any marketing for the retreat but say they are already turning away at least two groups a week.
They are hosting American university students studying New Zealand ecology.
Friends and family of the couple are just as excited about the purchase as the Feaseys.
A friend got married at the camp this year and Mrs Feasey's sister is to be married there next year.
"This is it for us, we're not going anywhere," she said.
"We hope the camp will stay for many generations. We will pass it on to family in time to come."
