Holiday in the Holiday Parks

We stayed in a variety of accommodations during our trip: hotels, hostels, a bed and breakfast, cabins, but most of the time we slept in campgrounds. The most common New Zealand campgrounds are the ‘holiday parks.’ These campgrounds are everywhere and filled with amenities that I’m not used to in a typical campground: kitchens, pools, playgrounds, laundry facilities, computers with internet, and more. I often prefer to be out in the backcountry, but stopping at these campgrounds perfectly filled our traveling needs. I enjoyed cooking in the common kitchens with all of the yummy fresh food we had purchased at the grocery stores (yes, the grocery stores were truly a highlight of our New Zealand trip).

Our little social butterfly loved staying in the campgrounds and Emma quickly made friends each time. At the very least the campgrounds had playgrounds, but most also had trampolines or giant bouncy pillows. Even the backpacker Paul had some fun at the holiday parks, especially the day he was pretending to be a superhero with our tent tarp. On Christmas morning we woke up at a holiday park and proceeded to have a very un-Christmas like day. The campground was packed and it seemed strange that kiwis celebrate Christmas in the summer with camping and barbeques. Many of the kiwis even had little Christmas trees in or around their tents. Emma’s big Christmas celebration was renting this cool bike for a half hour. She was thrilled. Who needs to open dozens of presents on Christmas?I got my Christmas wish of delicious pancakes at a restaurant and then we did what we did every other day of our trip and went hiking. We were headed to the Peel Forest and along the way we passed by Lake Pukaki, another one of NZ's scenic lakes. It was another gorgeous day and we were lucky to see the impressive Mt. Cook (NZ’s highest peak) without any clouds obstructing the view. We arrived at the Peel Forest and had our choice of many hikes. We opted for the Big Tree Walk to see some huge cedar trees, and a second hike to Acland Falls. Although we kept forgetting it was actually Christmas, it was definitely a memorable day.