Margie Cotter was the heart of the Lake Hawea Camping Ground, and a champion of 5am starts.
Mrs Cotter, who died in December 2005 aged 74, led an early morning camping ground cleaning brigade of her own children for many years.
When she retired in 1989, one of the first things her son Mike and his wife, Michelle, did when they took over was drop the early morning rounds.
Despite having six children in tow, Mrs Cotter was always able to get the family "cracking".
Her husband, Dick, began preparing the facilities just one month before the camp opened on December 24, 1970.
"November was the start of our project. Kevin Laing, Charlie Clark and I started pouring concrete for the floor slab on the 17th of November, 1970. It took three days to put it in and Charlie Clark came out and put all the blocks up. We were starting very early and were finishing at 10pm.
"Poor old Margie had all the kids. We got the camp operating by Christmas Eve. I loaded the old truck up and got home at 10pm. Margie had all the kids in bed. We got them up to go to midnight Mass and, as we were leaving, Margie forgot something and ran inside.
"Lo and behold, when we got home from Mass, Father Christmas had been," Mr Cotter said.
Mrs Cotter's cleaning regime commenced at 5am, when she would prise some of her six children out of bed to clean the camp facilities.
They would return home to the family's Myra St house for breakfast and then go back to the camp with the other children to pick up rubbish.
Later in the day, Mrs Cotter and the children would be back in the camp for another clean-up. But that wasn't the last time the Cotter tribe would make an appearance.
"I would then 'do the camp', as I would call it, and go around and see the customers. I would be by myself and sometimes there until 9pm or 10pm. Margie and the kids would bring along some sandwiches and a flask. That was wonderful.
"The 5am shift was one of the first things to go when Mike and Michelle took over. It was not popular at all but we have a few laughs about it today," Mr Cotter said.
Another of Mrs Cotter's undertakings was to plant a wide variety of native trees at the camp.
The family's tree-planting programme has been ongoing throughout the decades, supplementing trees planted by the domain board and replacing other trees.
A diminutive woman with a big heart, the former schoolteacher was also active in her community, lending her support to the Hawea Flat School, local sports groups, Country Women's Institute and the Central Otago Diabetes Association.
She was also a keen baker and had a propensity for practical jokes - before she married, she sold her husband to be half a dozen eggs from the Hawea Flat Store, one of which was hard-boiled.
The Cotter family recently planted two scarlet oaks and built a seat on camp land on the shore of Lake Hawea in memory of Mrs Cotter.
