Whakapapa Holiday Park — Attraction in North Island

I am not a Holiday Park type of person. I prefer full service/amenity type accommodation. However, my stay at the Whakapapa Holiday Park may have changed my mind.

Such a lovely friendly welcome at reception, with excellent directions to my Cabin, and also information about Eating Options, Park Facilities and also Emergency Procedures. The Reception has a good stock of goodies at what looked to be reasonable prices. There is also Kai cart at the front of the park. Was closed when I arrived, no doubt due to the inclement weather. But was open again in the morning, with a few people enjoying coffee in the cool morning air.

The Park is set in beautiful bush, and it felt really private. The cabins were situated under a canopy of lush bush, with parking directly outside the unit.

I had one of the Modernized Cabins, and they were really quite delightful. It was split level, with a double bed on the upper level, and 4 singles (2 in bunk form) down the bottom. Table and chairs, and also a heat pump that kept the whole cabin really toasty. In fact the upper level may have even been a bit too warm!

The Bathroom block, and Kitchen was just back up the driveway a little way. All were exceptionally clean and tidy. Showers had great water pressure and lovely and hot.

The Holiday Park was very quiet. It was off peak with the Ski Season not quite going, and the weather was really really poor. This meant for a lovely, quiet night away. I was the only guest at that end of the Holiday Park.

Free WiFi offered to all guests, and it was super super quick and reliable. Hard to find a accomodation provider that offers good WiFi. I was able to stream Netflix and also browse the net with no issues.

It was a lovely night, with the rain, hail and wind hammering the cabin, and all the bush above and around thrashing around. Magic really!

Look forward to returning to the Whakapapa Holiday Park. Highly...

Set in the hub of many of the exquisite Tongariro hiking trails and with the tourist center right next door, this holiday park has the best location, hands down. It’s simultaneously convenient and yet feels secluded. It should have been excellent. But, it lacks what I would I consider professional management. Don’t get me wrong, the manager and his wife are very nice people who try to be helpful and flexible. However, the facilities are lacking some basic necessities. For instance, the cooktops are so old that all the markings on the control panels have become invisible. And yet, the guests are supposed to just know which part of the black panel to touch to turn on the burner and adjust the temperature! It’s like using “Braille” but without the textures in the panel—it’s a flat LED panel! When asked about how to use the cooktop controls, the staff just shrugged her shoulders, pointed to a small sign in the back of the cooktop that supposedly had an illustration of the original panel, and said, “I know these are old. We’ll replace them soon.” Well, we have paid full price for the accommodation and expect the facilities to deliver NOW, not in the future! So that was a bit frustrating. Another issue we faced was that the office was often unstaffed even though the sign outside said it was open. So, real time communicating with the management was kind of impossible. ||It’s a shame that the property was not more professionally managed. It has a lot of potential to be excellent, but it is not now. ||I will still recommend it for its unbearable location. But lower your expectations when it comes to the service...

With all the good reviews we were expecting a quiet camping ground in the bush - it was far from that. Tentsites were horrible, it was small, the tents were very close to each other and there was a bright street light right above the tents at night. Showers are free, hot and mostly ok although some had a terrible shower head giving only a trickle. Every evening the kitchen (which is huge) was packed with young people who were monopolizing the tables even if they weren't eating. First time in NZ that I have to eat outside in the rain because people inside are using all the tables just to be on their laptops or their phones... They were all staying there until late, drinking and being very loud. Staff seemed friendly but asked us twice to park our car somewhere else (we were keeping the car on the side of the driveway close to the tentsite for a short time, as it was easier for putting up the tent, one lady asked us to move and said "you don't have to do it now" but not even 5 minutes later we got told to move our car again and we hadn't even finished putting up the tent! Later on in the evening people were doing the same thing as us and it was no problem...). One truly good thing was the free Gb of WiFi. Also it is right in Whakapapa Village and close to a lot of amazing walks. If you are looking for a quiet place with some privacy, do not go there! I cannot even imagine what it's like in...