Christoph
North Island ▷ Hawkes Bay ▷ Te Awanga ▷
5.0/5
Awesome location (literally directly by the beach, views on cape kidnappers, nearby wineries), friendly folks around with a lot of regulars/permanent caravans and an incorporated marine club.
Facilities are a but older, but that that’s more than matched by a really reasonable price.
Referring to some of the reviews complaining on their experience with the management: the manager I’ve met was a little grumpy but I did take that as an authentic and rather likable personality trait. Certainly not your oh-so-nice service guy from the hotel management school, though. If you’re not okay with that I see how you may not like the place as much.
North Island ▷ Northland ▷ Whangarei ▷
4.5/5
Beautiful location, all sites directly facing the sea.
Fully functionally equipped and nice bbq place
North Island ▷ Wellington Region ▷ Hutt Valley ▷
2.5/5
Price and choice of facilities as you would expect from other Top 10 parks.
However, a lot of the facilities have aged rather badly. Parts of the park (unfortunately including the part we stayed in) feature so-so functional bathrooms, bumpy roads, campervan sites that blend shapeless patches of dead lawn into gravel spots, sided by picknick tables made of rotten wood a long time ago... and the overall flair of an awkward industrial town suburb.
Also had a mixed experience with the reception staff (comparing to what I’ve seen at other top 10s).
In their defense, other parts of the part look relatively nicer, so we might just have been out of luck overall