Lake Ruataniwha Holiday Park, Twizel, Canterbury, NZ

I stayed at Lake Ruataniwha Holiday Park for two nights in October (springtime) on an unpowered site. It's a good family holiday park, because the lake is shallow around the holiday park, which is good for kids who want to swim or kayak here. Travellers in their 20s and 30s will probably find this holiday park and the town boring, but it might be worth staying for one night to rest on the way to or from Mt Cook or Lake Tekapo.
Taniwha is the Maori word for monster (usually a water monster that lives in lakes or the sea), and rua means two.
#canterbury
#holiday_parks

[@karenhealey935]

Thanks for the review. We will be heading out next week intending to stay in Tekapo / Twizel over Christmas before heading down to the Caitlins. These videos of the area are well timed for us. We have stayed in the MCA Tekapo and Tekapo Holiday park before but then trekked to Wanaka so have not stopped off anywhere in between before.

[@caravanlifenz]

One of my favourites is the DOC freedom camp called Lindis Pass Historic Hotel Campsite (near the border of Canterbury and Otago). I loved it, but it is down a muddy narrow 6 km road through cow paddocks, so it's only suitable for 4WD vehicles. I'm planning to make a video about it, but I took about 400 photos of the place so I have sort through which ones to delete :)

[@caravanstuff2827]

God what a tip... looks like a place we stayed at back in the 70s...yes we found twizel to be unpleasant to be around to...not what we expected given it survives on the tourist trade... that lake looks like it might be good to explore in a kayak!!.💕🇳🇿

[@caravanlifenz]

It looks quite rough and messy, but the locals have been going there for years and they don't mind - they're quite happy with it. I'd feel embarrassed if foreign tourists went there and thought NZ holiday parks normally looked like that. It wouldn't bother me if they didn't charge $20 per night for a single person on an unpowered site in the off season. I barely used $2 worth of their hot water in my shower and for my dishes, so they're making a big profit off what is essentially just a freedom camp otherwise :)