Lake Okareka Campsite — Hotel in North Island

I have really loved going camping at Lake Okareka for years but in our last visit I was really disappointed to see how downhill the campsite has gone since the change in wardens/volunteers.||||The wardens used to be really friendly and super efficient coming around both morning and night to collect fees as well as maintain the toilets and keep and eye on things.||||Since the change the upkeep of the site has deteriorated, especially the toilets, one door doesn't even have a handle and both locks are questionable. The smell and rubbish are also far worse and there doesn't seem to be any type of authority for people to speak to about noisy partying and parking etc etc. ||||There is also no working dropbox for people to pay anymore (if you miss the wardens) and no way to show that your car belongs to a camper. ||||I would really hate to think how much money has been lost by DOC simply because people leave before the wardens visit at night, especially when there is no guarantee as to when they will arrive.||||The available space for camping has also decreased with the topsoil having degraded so tent pegs are no longer able to find purchase except further back towards the trees.||||Speaking of trees, who thought it was a great idea to plant pohutukawa trees so close together along the water front? Not only are they less than 5 meters apart which means that once they are fully grown you will barely be able to get single tents in, yet alone family tents, but the flowers attract swarms of wasps!!||||The lake is still beautiful but I really hope lots of improvements are made by DOC to bring this campsite back up to standard, especially considering how expensive the nightly fees are...

Beautiful lake and a well maintained campground. The site is separated into day visitors and campers, although you'll find plenty of day trippers in the camping area to. Be aware that campervans and cars telt campers arrive in share the same parking spaces. On the other hand you can easily fit 3 cars in the spots made for 2 vans. At least on the weekend the spots fill fast, so being early is advised. Only 1/3 of the beach is for swimming, the rest is reserved for water ski and other sports. This gives you plenty to see during the day, but makes swimming a bit of a risk, as boats also like to ignore the signs and start from the swimming area. The toilets are basic drop dump, but reasonably clean. There is a big wooden shelter with places to sit. No water (except from the lake) and no rubbish bins (as on all DOC). Fees are collected in the evening. At the moment credit card/eftpos only. Once the day visitors and other party folks were gone, we had a...

Visited this campsite for the day in 2015 and decided we would like to camp there in the future. Stayed there in February this year for a night. It is a beautiful place surrounded by natural bush. The lake is clean and safe. It is a great swimming spot, good for water sports as well. The toilets are clean and serviced daily by the locals. There is a lovely little bush walk as well.||On the negative side, it is disruptive when campers come in late at night pitching tents and disturbing those asleep. On our stay someone pulled up next to us at 1.40am and someone else came a bit later! Fortunately, a local comes around early in morning for camp fees although we were witness to someone asleep in their car who never got charged because they weren't seen! Their driver was not honest enough to say...