PITCH PERFECT

Christmas tradition alive and well

There’s always a camping story – from sleeping through a storm to making friends.

Janine Ahie has a favourite Christmas camping story that her family love to talk about. When she was aged 4, her parents – Maurice and Pat Robinson – were camping in the Far North.

In the middle of the night, a big storm hit and it was all hands to the pump as the adults desperately tried to hold the tent down.

Janine and her sister, Debbie, slept through it all blissfully, creating a family story that still gets told more than 40 years later.

‘‘Mum and Dad love telling the story about the big hurricane that hit us.’’

Camping at Christmas is a Kiwi tradition that has lasted more than 100 years and Ahie hopes it is one that is never lost.

If camping grounds are anything to go by, it seems that it has not yet lost its attraction.

Campground operators spoken to say that spending Christmas in a tent is as popular as ever. Many have waiting lists and say the demand from Kiwi families remains unchanged.

At the Ohope Beach Top 10 Holiday Park, receptionist Ava Andersen says Christmas is always their busiest time of the year.

The park has about 120 campsites and it is overwhelmingly New Zealand families that stay at Christmas.

A priority booking system means that if you book the same site for two consecutive years, it pretty much becomes yours.

There are families who have returned every year for 20 years and campers come from all over New Zealand.

Phil Hunt, from Glendhu Bay Motor Camp on the shores of Lake Wanaka, has a lifelong love of sleeping under canvas.

Glendhu has been providing Christmas campers with stunning views of Mt Aspiring and the Southern Alps since the 1920s.

Hunt and his family began going there 55 years ago and the 65-year-old would not spend Christmas anywhere else.

‘‘I love the place, it is my favourite spot on earth,’’ Hunt says.

These days, he is the manager and is expecting the camp to be ‘‘99.9 per cent’’ occupied by Kiwis.

There are 411 campsites and a long waiting list.

He laughs at the suggestion that Kiwis no longer camp, saying that it if anything, it is becoming more popular.

‘‘We have third and fourthgeneration families coming here year after year. It is certainly not any less popular than when I first came.’’

A typical family will be mum, dad and the kids, as well as grandparents.

Campers like to stay in the same spot so they get to know their neighbours and often make lifelong friends.

‘‘Our campers are very passionate about this place and enjoy the family atmosphere.’’

When he first started, everything was very basic. He recalls green canvas tents and ‘‘little round barbecues’’ that everything was cooked on.

Campers now have a lot of toys like jet-skis and gas cookers. However, the fun of camping – enjoying the lake and sleeping under stars – remains the same.

And it’s something that Ahie can relate to. Her parents always made sure camping was memorable.

‘‘I remember Dad would set up a volleyball net and make a special trophy and that would be a big deal.’’

They camped all over New Zealand when she was young and it is trend that she has continued with husband, Michael Ahie, and their boys – Sam, 21, and Joe, 19.

The family have a favourite spot, Te Rata Bay, Lake Tarawera, where they have camped for 24 consecutive Decembers.

What made it really special is that her parents were also included, continuing the tradition well into their 80s.

For Ahie, the enjoyment comes from reconnecting with nature and socialising with campers over basic chores like doing the washing up.

It is tradition that her sons have embraced and she is confident they too will be lifelong campers.

According to Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand, Christmas camping began in the 1920s and reached its peak in the 1970s.

‘‘On the Friday before Christmas,’’ said one popular magazine, ‘‘New Zealand shut up shop, office and factory and went on holiday.’’

Well into the 1970s, almost the entire population took its annual holiday over the same period, resulting in notoriously quiet and vacated cities and crammed camping grounds.

‘‘Although their cars theoretically gave them freedom of movement, many campers returned to the same place year after year, battling traffic jams in each direction.’’

The list of campsites across New Zealand runs into the hundreds, and, although there are lots of news stories about the decline of camping, they are mostly anecdotal.

David Dwight has a unique interest in camping. He grew up in a family that enjoyed camping and now runs a tent-selling company.

For a long time Dwights held an annual sale in the Overseas Terminal in Wellington but that stopped when the site was turned into apartments.

Tents sell for between $500 and $4000 and their market is overwhelmingly Kiwis looking for a quality tent. ‘‘Our main market is families who want to go away for a week or two and enjoy it.’’

In recent years, there had been a market for people buying cheap tents for-one off occasions such as music festivals.

There is, however, still strong demand for quality family canvas tents that can survive New Zealand’s summers.

Dwight will not comment on how many tents he sells but says the number is significant.

He is in regular contact with camping grounds and says there is no evidence that Kiwis are turning away from camping.

‘‘The feedback we get is that there is as much interest as ever and they are all fully booked up for Christmas.’’