Spencer Beach TOP 10 Holiday Park — Attraction in Christchurch

Of all our road trip in NZ, we have planned to stay at Spencer Beach Top 10 Holiday Park the longest as they are near Christchurch where we can rest our weary souls from the 4500km of driving from north to south island.

Having booked the campground way in advance, we were sadden by the news of the fire that gutted one of the facilities, but the communication was excellent and we were assured that there will be sufficient facilities for all camper.

While driving towards the campsite, we were a bit taken aback by a burnt out car by the side of the road, and the multiple burnout marks created by hoons leaving their mark allover the roads. I sure does give us a feeling of uneasiness if the campsite is safe for us to stay overnight for 3 days? The drive to the campsite passed by some residential estate and bumpy train crossing do exercise care and caution while crossing them.

Unsure if we have the correct location, we pressed on driving towards the campsite with the 2 GPS(Google and Garmin) confirming that we are on the right track.

And finally we found the familiar signage of the TOP 10 Holiday Park, what a sigh of relief.

We stopped at the reception area and checked ourselves in to know where is our allocated campground; and boy this is a big campground, care must be taken and drive at slow pace, as children was running and cycling everywhere having the time of their lives.

We finally found our allocated campground and the grass was nicely manicured and soft, and the shower/toilet facilities was just a stones throw away, and it is looking very new.

Once we entered the campground, the environment is very different, and completely opposite from the drive in, we felt safe and every camper there was polite and fun loving, though a few might have a wee bit too much to drink and partied on till midnight with bottles and bottles of reds going on, but they were never rowdy, but a tad bit loud but thank god they only kept this party to just 1 night, and the rest of the days everything was quiet by 1030pm.

We thoroughly enjoyed the shower facilities with their timed 8minutes of hot water, which is plenty of time given for warm shower before requiring a reset, I completed my shower in 3mins, lol.

The cooking area is spacious and clean, and everyone kept the area spick and span.

A few camper recommend us to drop a line over at the Kairaki beach, and luckily we did bring along a travel fishing rod and reel for some simple fishing.

The fishing there is out of this world, and we were landing Kahawai (Australian Salmon) left, right and center, no matter where we cast, in that short span of 1hour, we landed and released 10 fishes, and gave 1 unfortunate salmon which has its gills hooked and suffered too much damage to a local fisho who wasn't getting any bites, much to our surprise.

The fish was gladly received and made a friend along the way.

After fishing, we returned back to our campsite to a chill to afternoon, cooking by our campervan with the nearby tree providing shade from the sun.

I would definitely recommend this campsite, the only downside is the cell phone reception here is rather weak and the Wifi is chargeable daily, well we can`t have it all can we.

Without strong cell signal, we can just read a book, chill and enjoy the environment, and that is...

This is by far the WORST campsite I have been to in New Zealand (I've stayed at 6 at the time of this writing). The campsite as a whole is dirty, dingy, chalk full of bugs, and has wildlife that wanders though tents and trash at night. They charge an exorbitant amount for WiFi that works literally NO WHERE on the campground. You'd be better off paying the ridiculous fees associated with using a hotspot from your phone...oh wait they have very poor phone reception as well! Their facilities are constantly dirty, including but not limited to their bathrooms. Their bathrooms are also not enclosed fully, so you can enjoy the bugs while you camp AND while you use the toilet or shower. Beyond the horrible state of affairs regarding their campground facilities the staff here is DEPLORABLE. My experience:

I stayed here for almost a full week, paying about 1-2 nights at a time. Given the lack of cleanliness I stayed simply because my companion and I didn't want to take down our tent and this place is very cheap (turns out you get what you pay for here). I went into the office on a Wednesday to pay through Friday night, after the office staff had warned me about a potential influx of people starting on Friday. I had even acknowledged their warning while attempting to pay through Friday night and specifically stated, "I would like to stay through Friday night". Two days go by and my companion and I leave to go to the Mall nearby to attempt to find some WiFi that actually works. Upon our return there is another camper waiting at our campsite making ready to put up his tent. He rudely informs us that we must move because he paid for this site. Upon checking with the office I discover that they did not in fact book me through Friday night and informed that I was supposed to check out at 10am that morning. I politely tried to remind them of the conversation I had with their employee two days prior and that I had already spent almost an entire week in that exact spot. They insisted that I would have to move my tent even if I wanted to stay there that night, and that in doing so I would have to give up the option of having a powered campsite. This to me was unacceptable and given the poor facilities and cleanliness I told them I would happily pack up and take my business elsewhere if they were going to take that stance on the matter. I go back to my site and while I'm packing up my tent the campground maintenance man drives his truck up next to my car, gets out, and continues to attempt to scold me for not being out at 10am (not that he had actually come over to my campsite to remind us of this at 10am). He said, "I hear that my employees in the office have already spoken to you about making my job harder by not being out of here at 10 this morning..." At this point I became angry, I explained that I had not in fact made his job harder, but rather his fellow employees blatant incompetence had increased the difficulty of his job. Furthermore, had he actually done his job and come to my campsite at 10 am there is a good chance I could have paid for that night and resolved the issue before it became one.

LUCKILY I took my business elsewhere, I suggest you...

Top 10 at Spencer Park What a fabulous place. The staff are fantastic, so kind so helpful and just lovely to talk to. Always smiling and so thoughtful. We have been blown away by the staffs kindness to us whilst our motorbike was being repaired. We have stayed here more than a week and so impressed how well this campsite is set up. It’s a huge site but everything is super clean, well organised and signposted. The grounds are beautiful with lots of stunning pitches throughout with huge trees lots of wildlife and wonderful places to walk all around the campsite with wetland reserves and the beautiful beach just a few minutes away. The site has fantastic kitchen and shower set ups that are super modern with everything thought of to cook a nice meal. Great washing up facilities, super clean bathrooms and showers - I can not fault this place. Cleaning is of such a high standard that it just makes you feel comfortable and relaxed. All of the staffing team are so friendly and helpful. Rubbish is well organised for recycling and bins emptied regularly, love the boxes for sharing if you have food left over at the end of your stay you can leave for other campers. This is wonderful and stops wastage and brings more of a community feel to the place. We camped in our tent and stayed in a basic cabin at opposite ends of the campsite. Both areas are truly wonderful. Thank you so much for looking after us and making us so welcome. We can not recommend this beautiful...