Lake Waitaki, in North Otago, has always been a popular spot for summer visitors, but one camp site in particular has its own appeal for the hundreds of people who return there for summer holidays year after year. Andrew Ashton examines what makes the Fisherman's Bend Reserve so addictive.
If you are sick of city life take a 20km drive down Otago Peninsula from Dunedin to Portobello to find the perfect escape. Shawn McAvinue visits Portobello Village Tourist Park.
It's a community with a holiday population of a couple of hundred people, few of them are related, but all treat each other like close family. Reporter John Lewis takes a look at one of Otago's most popular holiday haunts, Toko Mouth.
At Labour Weekend, management of the Queenstown Lakes District Council holiday parks was taken over by a newly formed private company called Council Camps Revitalised Ltd. The company consists of two couples with long histories in the camping ground business and full of ideas about how to improve the holiday experience of those who choose to camp. On Boxing Day, Mark Price took the pulse of one of the camps - the Wanaka Lake View Holiday Park - as it began to fill up for New Year.
Having their own slice of paradise to escape to, where there is little more to do than unwind and watch the weather change, has yielded a lifetime of memories for Elaine and Stephen Warburton.
A short drive past lupins and cabbage trees, beyond a stone fence chicane is Purakaunui, a settlement just over the hill from Dunedin, but ''a million miles away''.
For the 26 families who make the annual Christmas pilgrimage to a 90-year-old fishing village on the Kakanui River, near Oamaru, there are no gaudy Christmas lights on display, no annual re-runs of Mary Poppins on television to suffer and no electricity to cook Christmas lunch - but that is the way they like it, and that is the way they want to keep it.
People don't go to Warrington for a holiday because of what's there.
Bannockburn, an area steeped in golden history, has a special appeal that sees generation after generation of the same families escaping Dunedin and Invercargill to holiday at the local domain. Sarah Marquet went to meet some of those people to find out what brings them back each year.
Once an area bustling with activity during and after the Central Otago gold rush, the Nine Mile historic reserve in the Lindis Valley is now an idyllic riverside camping and picnic spot steeped in heritage. Lucy Ibbotson visited the reserve on Boxing Day.
''Cheap and cheerful''is how a Scottish couple describe the Twelve Mile Delta camping ground just 10km from the hustle and bustle of Queenstown's summer crowds.
The Bourke family's Harwood property is not a holiday home, nor is it a bach - it is a crib. David Loughrey finds it lives up to that name to the point it could almost be used as a definition of the Southern family getaway.
Waipori Falls Village has no letterboxes, no shops, no service station and no street names. More importantly for Christchurch couple Jon and Lynette Barfoot, it has no earthquakes.
Tucked away among mountain beech trees in a scenic bay on the northwest shore of Lake Hawea is a tiny camping spot frequented by a diverse range of people, all with a story to tell. Lucy Ibbotson finds out what makes the Kidds Bush Reserve such a special place for those who camp there.
The pastor, sitting at the table inside the living quarters of the Danseys Pass Holiday Park, confesses at times to being close to sinning.
A change of scenery makes for a good holiday, writes Chris Morris.
Where children used to run around playing and laughing 100 years ago, there are once again children running around playing and laughing. As for the parents, well, they're just relaxing. Nigel Benson visits Camp Sutton.
At the head of Lake Wakatipu you'll find a small town filled every holiday season with campers, couples and families. Olivia Caldwell discovers why Kinloch is no longer a secret.
Few people take the time to stop in at Shag Point, just off State Highway 1 north of Palmerston. However, John Lewis popped in and discovered a host of reasons to holiday in the East Otago coastal retreat.
Pounawea, a quiet seaside settlement in the Catlins, is a great place for fishing, kayaking, picnicking, bird watching (forest and sea birds) and for bush and estuary walks. Helena de Reus talks to a family visiting the seaside township.
