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I am not a fan of this place as it made us feel unsafe, and here is why:
The campsite is nice and secluded and the dirt road leading towards is was not too bad. The campsite states online that you don't have to book, first come, first serve and rhat there are 6 spots.
However, when you arrive, none of this seems to matter. The board at the campsite said you have to book online - again, online states different.
There's no honesty box or anything to pay, nor any doc staff checking on the place. So I guess that means that you could stay for free near Kaikoura, yay! (We have a doc pass so didn't matter for us).
People arrive till deep in the night, and the place is fully packed. 6 spots? Yeah nah. Make that 12, at least, if you'd ask the people arriving late.
The toilet is not being looked after, by the looks of it. It's a very smelly hole in the ground. There's no toilet paper so make sure you bring your own.
We were very lucky, however, with the people that were there. But the reason we felt unsafe is because there's no control by Doc staff and if a group of men with knives would rock up, they could very easily rob everyone. And for a docsite that would cost you 10 bucks ea, I don't think that should be the case :)
We arrived early (3.30 pm) and left late (around 11). This menas we had a big window for doc...
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Isolated and dry river, this campsite was well off the beaten track and corrugated roads; we used four wheel drive for most of the road leading up to it. There were only a small number of people here, and a lot more seemed to be leaving (like us), as leaving your site here for any day-trips would be foolish, it’s totally unsafe and not well enough frequented to feel ok. Best to avoid unless you’re ok to just drive there and check it out for yourself, even have a small lunch stop there, but...
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Tent camped, encountered NO ONE! No public, ranger, or cars. Online check in is easy. $15
Sound of river is nice (very close walk), heard only a few cars during the night, the area is quiet and bathrooms clean.
Picnic tables was a nice benefit
Parking area would be kind of rough if it was really busy though. There’s a legendary spot under the trees. You can see how many people are checked in online, more than 6 might start being a...
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