Jacksons Retreat Alpine Holiday Park — Hotel in South Island

The facilities are very nice and tidy and the surrounding are beautiful. The glow worm paths are nice as well. However, we had a very bad experience here, due to the way we were treated by the owners of this place. What happened was a s follows. My husband and I had just started our camper van holiday in New Zealand and had only arrived the previous night. We had only picked up the van on the day, and got to the holiday park late, as we were not familiar with the opening times of things in the country yet. The next day, we were slow to start in the morning. We had been told that check-out time was 10. We didn't realize it was so very strict, as other countries we've done camper van holidays in were not strict about people leaving exactly at check-out time. So we were about half an hour late when the owner spoke sternly to my husband that we should be going now. My husband said he was curt and rough. So we packed up everything quickly and I just wanted to go to the toilet one more time. As the main bathrooms were being cleaned from 10:00, I knew not to go there. There was a little note that said one could use a toilet behind the bathroom block during this time if needed. So I was heading there when I bumped into the owners who all but started yelling at me that I cannot use the toilet anymore, I need to leave right now. It was quite terrifying. I still wasn't quite used to the time zone, and I really didn't mean any harm. The response was completely out of proportion in my opinion, and I felt like either these people had had a really bad experience with campers recently, or they had some serious general anger management problems. While I headed back to the van, frightened, the female owner walked parallel to me and continued spewing out mean comments at me, even though I had already said that I'll leave right away. As a foreigner in New Zealand for the first time, and still not quite acclimatized, this was a terrible first impression of the locals for me. And although we later realized that 10:00 is a common check out time and that maybe the locals like being very punctual, which is very different from culture to culture, no other camp site was as strict or mean to us. Others were much more relaxed. Anyway, I think the response of the owners was completely uncalled for and completely out of proportion. I don't think that the tourism/service field is the right choice of profession for these people considering their level of flexibility and understanding towards people from different countries/ general social skills. It's a pity, as the location itself is very nice...

Do not stay here The location is stunning, the park is well maintained and the communal area is quite nice, but here is where the good points come to an end. When we arrived the carpark was full so we parked well off the main driveway so we could pop into the office and head to our campsite, not 10 seconds out of the car when a very miserable old man started yelling (Imagine the old guy from Up) Apparently, we had to park in the car park with no parks, we swiftly moved the car and went up to the office to pay and find our site, the old lady at the desk was quite short in her communication and told us very directly that the bathrooms are closed daily from 10-12. That night the old man drove his quad bike around the camp ever hour well into the night. In the AM we felt like a sleep in and missed the 10am cut off for the showers, no problem we thought we will just wait for 12 and shoot down then, and that is what we did. I looked around and there were no staff, no closed signs and the passcode opened the door (see map) so I though nice they must be done so jumped in the shower, only a few moments later had the same old man screaming at me to get out of the shower that I should not be there, I replied "Dude, its ten past twelve!" He snapped back and told me to get out now they neened to clean, so I cut my shower short and when I was leaving got told off by the other two clenaers (one of theme was very nice about the situation and seemed to understad what the two old people were like) I proceded up to the office to find out why it was closed after 12 and if tomorow we would be okay to go in around 10 if they will be late again, The bitter old lady started yelling at me as soon as I came into the office, Once I settled her down she informed me they were at 130% occupance and she had not been able to leave the office all day and advised me that "here on the west coast we dont have time" and they will close the showers for as long as they like. I have never had such poor customer service or met such sour people. I think it is time you pass the managment over to your daughter (the wonderful lady in the coffee cart by teh gym) she was so so friendly, makes one of the best coffees iv had in years and would have that camp ground humming if she was at the helm. Now after reading how you reply to the other 1 star reviews I am very excited to see what dissmissive "its not my fault" lie filled reply you will have for me, I sure know it will make me and many others laugh. (we spent part of our evening in the tent looking at the reviews...

We decided to book here for wee family escape for our 5th wedding anniversary. We made the drive from Christchurch especially just to stay at this camp ground and head back home the next day. I'll start with the positives as there are a few. This camping ground is absolutely gorgeous and well kept. There are amazing tracks leading to gorgeous waterfalls and even an old quartz mine. At night time there are multiple walks to see the glow worms in their natural dells, all of the facilities are immaculate and very modern but sadly that's where the positives end for us. We booked in off a camping app called Rankers camping after reading the blurb and seeing that it was pet friendly I booked which redirected me to their booking software where it asked all of our details including age of our children etc.. having gone through all that I had no idea how much of an inconvenience we would be to the owner. We walk to the office with our family dog on her lead and ended up being rushed at by the owner who was shocked and angry we had our dog (apparently we are the last straw for dogs being allowed their now 🤷🏼‍♀️) she stated we needed to have let them know prior that our dog was coming so after apologising profusely for not knowing that (not sure how I was supposed to know) I was handed a peice of paper saying if they found poo after we left that my card would be charged $100! she was very cold even after all of my apologies. It absolutely killed it for us and we literally sat in our tent the rest of the the day/night (which ended up flooded due to a west coast down pour all night long) my husband even picked up dog poo that wasn't from our dog so we wouldn't be charged. This place cost us $72 for a non powered site for a family of two adults and two children and it absolutely would have been worth it had the owner not been so unwelcoming. We left feeling like an inconvenience and in hindsight I wish we had left at the time of meeting her. Definitely not the Kiwi hospitality I'm used to. And definitely will...