Blenheim Bridges Holiday Park — Local services in South Island

Avoid if possible. (Cabin stay) My friend and I stayed during our road trip to many places similar to this holiday park. We have never had such a difficult stay. A person who must be the manager (recognisable with a goatee) is quite unpleasant. I have read in other comments that my opinion is not isolated. We needed to extend our stay several times as the area is very nice. Once I woke up at 8am to go and extend my stay and a receptionist there asked me to come back later as the computers were not on. However, he told me that it was possible to extend my stay. So I came back as agreed at 9am but nobody was there even when I rang. I left again and at 10.30am the manager came knocking on the door to ask us to leave quickly as we hadn't paid for the extra night... A second time I extended my stay the evening before and the manager told me again to leave quickly because checkout is at 10am maximum in a very rude and disrespectful manner. Many unwritten rules come out of the manager's hat. To mention just one the visit of a friend must not exceed 1 hour per day, otherwise their vehicle will be immobilised by a wheel immobiliser. We were fined by the manager because our friend arrived 'too early' (8.30am). I have read that many people have complained in the reviews about the presence of cockroaches in the rooms and kitchen. According to the answers available in the reviews, the problem has been solved. However, we found cockroaches even on our plates and cutlery. The cabins are less than 3 metres from the railway, on which trains run even at night. Even with a heavy sleep, the shaking of the walls and the noise woke me up. In short, avoid the place and read the comments to do not make the same...

Stayed Oct 2023 for one night, powered site. |First off, yes this site is dated. Yes it is right near the fly over. But the facilities were clean, all worked and the staff were friendly. Prices are average especially when you start to park up on sites further south of Queenstown. Compared to those, this is cheap.|Thee is free wifi but it seems quite sketchy at times, probably due to the sheer size of the site.|We met some lovely people here and all seemed fairly satisfied with the site overall. |Over 15 days, we stayed at nearly as many camps all over the South Island and consider this to be average in the mix of them all. |What lifts it, is to take a walk down by the river and see the black swans and other wildlife. The river runs crystal clear with views over the mountains and it is actually very beautiful. |One thing we noticed with several sites all over, is that the presence of ageing caravans that have obviously been static for many many years and have fallen into dirty, overgrown disrepair, spoils sites. And this site does unfortunately have it's fair share. |Other long term residents however, have really gone to town, planting up lovely gardens full of spring colour. |We also suffered an issue of irresponsible parking by (I think) long term residents, while we were using the dump station, causing issues for inexperienced RV rental drivers to get by. No attempt to move the car (parked semi blocking the access road) was made by the residents sitting outside drinking their coffee, just stares of...

While speaking to the host over the phone he asked me where I was from, so I said that I live in Sydney but I am from India so he replied "your English is really good for that". Umm, I was pretty much speechless thereafter.

The facilities and warmth were below average as compared to the other two Top 10 we visited during our week long trip. The crowd was a bit weird and the staff was pretty unfriendly.

We expected a good atmosphere similar to the adorable hosts at Pohara Beach and Hamner Springs but regretted spending money here. We should have opted for another holiday park or motel instead.

The stars are for the comfortable mattress on the bed (which kept moving due to the wheels).

P.S. - It's pretty much on the highway and railtrack so heads up for the noise.

Update - I pulled down my rating to one star after the extremely ignorant and pathetic response on my review from the owner who thinks I would randomly not only review a place but also enter a property and click pictures in the middle of my road trip in South Island NZ in 2019 without having stayed there for god knows what reason. Hilarious! I think the owner’s response to my review is a wonderful depiction of the kind of stay and service one should...