12 Mile Delta — Hotel in South Island

We recently spent 2 nights here, was going to be 5. On arrival, we filled out the check-in slip, popped in the box thing and chose a campsite. We noticed quite a bit of litter around the campsite, odd for a hosted DOC site, but never mind. Didn't see any host the first day, night or the next morning. That day we went to do the Bobs Cove Walk, highly recommend, came back, again didn't see any hosts, did however see some dogs off their leads roaming around and s**ting in/by campsites. The next morning at 7:30, BANG! BANG! BANG! On the doors, it's still dark out, we wake up, nearly jump out of our skin, to a woman, first thing she said was 'Payment for last night!?', still half asleep, and very confused, (we have a DOC pass so all pre-paid, we don't need to pay nightly), she then calls me obnoxious for asking her what she's doing, a very aggressive man comes over, shines his torch right in our eyes!! I put my hand up to block the shine, he aggressively knocks it out of the way, so we quickly close our van door, he opens the door and continues to insist, we need to pay, we weren't there before now, we haven't checked in! The woman tells us the campsite is private, and they do not follow DOC rules!?!?! Eventually after about 15 minutes, we finally get them to leave! (Oh they had been doing this to others since 6:30) Can't call DOC as no signal, so email them (Starlink), the man comes back, knocks on the door, he's found our check-in slip. No apology! He then tries to make out we weren't there on the day we dated our check-in, what would be the point of that?! Completely unprofessional! Lied about the camp and their position there! Aggressive! Very rude! Not enforcing DOC campsite rules! We live full-time on the road, and have never ever experienced anything like we did here! DOC have since apologised for our experience, these two are employed by a third party company to manage the campsite! Not sure what they're doing! But...

To start I need to say we don't really do a lot of camping in tents. We were in Queenstown for 2 days / 1 night in the middle of February and we could not find a hotel - anywhere. I'm believe it was Chinese Spring Break or similar.||We purchased required tent, sleepy Ng bags and inflatable mattress from the warehouse. So we came prepared. The actual camp ground was very 'rocky' and not easy to get tent pegs into. ||There seemed to be a lot of campers there that did leave before 7.00am. ||There seemed to be a lot of campers that did not use the toilet in the night, but I suspect used any nearby bushes.||The scenery / outlook and location was SPECTACULAR but this place is let down by the lack of toilet facilities. I started to suspect that a number of workers in town were based here in the evening due to general accommodation shortages in the district. ||There was a shower and the toilets were composting. ||The fees were very reasonable at $13 adult and $6 child per night, but there seemed to be a lot of people left before the DoC staff did their checking in the morning regarding fees. ||I would recommend, but not perhaps in a tent, as there seemed to be the smell of waste basically...

You must pay/record your info upon arrival! Of all the places I've camped at in the North and South Islands, this is one of the only ones where I've actually seen attendants come through to verify vehicles' registration. I have been twice now and both times in the early morning, I saw 2 people with clipboards walking around to check campers. On my most recent stay (Tuesday morning approx. 7am) I was even stopped briefly at the gate upon exiting by another person who had to confirm with the others that I had been checked (presumably so that those who didn't pay couldn't skip out in the wee hours of dawn). Makes sense since it is so close to Queenstown! Just a word to the wise not to try to get away with anything sus here.

Nice camping spot. The proximity to Queenstown makes it popular. Busy, but there are lots of spots to park in, and you can squeeze into some areas. Lots of vehicles appeared to be parked for the long term (many satellite dishes and other clues that it was more permanent than a 1 or 2 night stay) Toilets were...