Whites Bay Camping Area — Hotel in South Island

The location of this campsite is excellent, beside a beautiful bay with sandy beach. Very suitable for daytime swimming or just a walk around. It has cold water shower and toilet facilities. The rangers are an old couple, the guy is absolutely rude and outright psycho, be extremely careful as he is abusive and very heavy handed in language especially if you are a foreign decent and English isn't your first language as he will completely overwhelm you and wont give you even a chance to explain yourself. I got here at night, couldn't find the pay station even after checking twice around the ranger place, so I thought I could pay later or in the morning when I see the ranger, more on that later. Since there wasn't any guide or map of the place I couldn't find where are tent sites, so I ended up just parking on the car park and slept in the car. My main goal of staying here was night stars photography as the bay faces East and the Milky Way rises from east at this time of the year, as I had planned using GoogleEarth and Stellarium before going to the trip. I did take beautiful star images and made a nice timelapse. Also I saw a pair of penguins that were getting ready to go to the sea just as the tide was starting to come in, while my camera was doing the timelapse. After that I came back to the car around 11 PM as the moon rose also clouds increased so the Milky Way wasn't visible anymore. I woke up early in the morning to photograph sunrise which was when the ranger appeared. He outright started abusive language, straight away said: I noticed you stayed here last night and didn't pay, I have recorded your reg. no. and will send Police after you, I answered I came at dark didn't find pay station thought could pay when I see you or in the morning, he said "YOU DIDNT LOOK PROPERLY" and continued "I'M NOT INTERESTED IN YOUR STORY.." and didn't even let me to explain. I paid him, but he continued abusive language, I just didn't have much to say, felt like a criminal, all for just $13, which was still overpriced for a place with only cold shower (which I didn't use) and toilet that are free to use daytime as this is a government funded public place. Then the ranger's wife came, she was struggling to stop her abusive husband and eventually sent him away and talked to me. Then the guy came again and she again tried and sent him away. I am a tax payer and I feel it isn't right my tax money going to fund public facilities like this one or paying pension for this type of old guys who have no clue on hospitality abut have been appointed to manage DOC facilities. I don’t stay at DOC places often as the facilities are often poor with long drop toilets (this one has flush toilets), you can pay a little extra and stay at respectful private campsites almost definitely for better experience but I stayed here just for the location and photography in mind as I stated earlier. The two stars I gave are just for the natural settings of the bay, the service or hospitality doesn't even...

Great camping spot, showers, beautiful beach. IMPORTANT TO NOTE: check in with the camp host

• GATE is LOCKED 9pm - 7 am *

This was the first DOC site or any site at all that we stayed at in 3 weeks that had a gate. I missed the signs, and the small print on the website booking stating the gate would be locked til 7 am. We had to be at the ferry at 645. Which is why I chose this campsite, the only affordable availability for a nonself contained van (due to new laws) - the 30 min drive to the early ferry was great. Until we saw the locked gate during departure. This lead to a very negative interaction with the camp host. Regardless of my travel experience and due diligence with planning I hit my first snag in 3 weeks...

I have not stayed at the camp-site but traversed it to get to the beach in summer. In 2015 there was an edible shellfish, Pipi, colony close to the shore. Should you partake, ask about the quotas for what it is you are partaking in. The road to and from the site has been known to freeze hands of cyclists in the winter, velocity on hills and handbrake ability reduction, and cause need for rescues of cyclists subsequently impaled in trees. Caution is needed for tides and rips too, hence you will notice there is a lifeguard operation. So long as you do not behave like you are invincible, the park, beach, hiking trails and roads to the...