Whanganui’s holiday parks attract local and international visitors

The Kai Iwi Beach Holiday Park in Whanganui is having a busy summer season. Photo / Olivia Reid

Whanganui’s campgrounds are a hive of activity despite inclement weather over the holiday season.

The Kai Iwi Beach Holiday Park was buzzing with campers on the afternoon of January 2 with people packing down tents quickly being replaced by groups arriving to set up shelters.

“It’s been a busy summer,” co-owner Diane Taylor said.

But the summer peak is not over yet for the holiday park with plenty of bookings coming up, including for Waitangi Day, an annual family reunion and three school camps.

However, co-owner Bruce Taylor assured prospective visitors they were still welcome.

“We’re busy but we’re not booked out,” he said.

“We’ve got heaps of spots opening up from [January 3]; they will fill up as we go but people have a really good chance of getting a site still.”

The heavy winds and rain that battered Whanganui between Christmas and new year scared off some visitors, Diane Taylor said, but the park was quickly filling up again.

She said much of its customer base was young families but it often also had multi-generational families staying over Christmas.

“It’s the same every year,” she said.

Plenty of Whanganui residents stayed at the holiday park over the festive season, and with many of them returning every year it cultivated a community between campers, she said.

There were also multiple groups setting up camp at the Whanganui River Top 10 Holiday Park at Aramoho in the early afternoon of January 3.

One of these was Janniy and Rob Dignum, a Dutch couple who took three months off from their jobs in the Netherlands to cycle Tour Aotearoa, a 3207km cycling route from Cape Reinga to Bluff.

Dutch couple Janniy and Rob Dignum stopped at the Whanganui River Top 10 Holiday Park during Tour Aotearoa. Photo / Olivia Reid

The couple planned to spend between two days to a week in Whanganui before continuing their cycle route.

“Sometimes you need a rest between all the biking and we thought this is a good place to have that rest,” Rob Dignum said.

During their short break, the couple hoped to rent a car to see family in Napier, but their travel method of choice remained a bike.

“We chose to visit New Zealand on bike to see more of the country and more of the people,” Rob Dignum said.

“We’ve met a lot of nice people during our trip. They invite us for coffee or make breakfast for us. It’s incredible.”

Olivia Reid is a multimedia journalist based in Whanganui.