Okains Bay Camping Ground product reviews

We were looking for something a little away from mainstream for our family holiday and had heard that in recent years Okains Bay had become a lot more family friendly than it's history would lead you to believe.

Within the last few years they have built two new ablutions blocks that are set out exactly the same which house the only electricity you will find, cell access is non existent unless you wish to climb or drive up the hill and while you can buy wireless internet access don't expect to be able to sit in your tent and use it. Now all of that sounds pretty horrific, I trust you it's not, a forced tech holiday is wonderful! The blocks themselves are well appointed with two large chest freezers in each of them which you pay for a key to have access to and while they have recently been upgraded don't expect to keep your icecream frozen in them, they're opened so many times a day they don't work as efficiently as they could do.

One of the kitchens has electric elements and the other has gas, there are no ovens so using your own bbq (gas only) and cook tops might be preferable. Showers are $2 for 4 mins which seems to be quite a long time and have good pressure. Overall the blocks are well presented and while modest and simplistic have everything you could need including a pay washing machine and dryer.

There is a kid friendly play area which includes a rather tall rope climbing frame, two flying foxes, mini climbing wall, swings and slide. There is also a BMX track which is in the forest and heaps of fun for young and old.

The beach itself is relatively shallow and doesn't have a huge drop off, it can hold quite a good surf in the right conditions and be completely calm in others. For those that don't like the surf there is the estuary which is just as much fun at high tide as it is as low tide. There are also numerous walks around the bays, some require a reasonable level of fitness but there's heaps to do without even venturing out of the bay, such as shell fish collecting, the local Maori museum and rock scrambling.

The only downside we've found is that being a Doc camp site there are no allocated sites, actually there are no sites at all, you just set up where you feel like it, and there isn't a whole heap of completely flat ground but there's ways around that.

For supplies there's a good local store that sells pretty much anything you might need from puncture repair kits to lollies and ice creams, they also do fish and chips every night in the high season (Fridays only off season), it's a nice bike ride from the camp or a quick 2 minute drive. For the bigger items or a day trip there's a quick jaunt over the hill to Akaroa where there's lots to do as well.

Overall I think this is an excellent camp ground, if you're into glamping this isn't the place for you, however it is possible to have a great camping experience with the bare minimum and is well worth the drive which is spectacular in itself if you follow Summit Road from the road over to Akaroa.