Kerr Bay Campsite
Kerr Bay Campsite
Lake Rotoiti
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Information
Kerr Bay Camping Ground is a large, serviced camping area, on the shores of Lake Rotoiti and close to the village.
Recent mainland island pest control (good on you DOC and the local community) has seen this area become more alive with birdlife. Kaka numbers have grown and recently introduced Kiwi are starting to thrive also. It's a great story and it's a great spot too.
Details
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Location |
South Island ▷ Nelson Region ▷ St Arnaud |
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Categories |
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Operating Season And Hours |
Bookings not required from Easter (mid April) to mid December.
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Contact
Accommodations
Reviews
Showing 8 reviews of 36.
lisa
Ranking: 9/10
Fantastic facilities at this campsite...best I've experienced.
And a beautiful setting on the lake with a lovely walk around the lake and the option of boat ride to lake head and walk back to camp.
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Sophi
Ranking: 8/10
A great DOC site, lake Rotoiti is just beautiful. We were delayed arriving due to bad weather so missed checking in at the visitor center. The camp hosts were then not around until later & had no shower tokens on them. We managed to park up in the right area with our tent as per our booking email though.
The new toilets are fab, didn’t use the showers due to no tokens.
Be warned, the sand flies are a pain!!
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Vanessa
Ranking: 7/10
Stayed for 2 nights because of the beautiful lake surrounding. Nice camp hosts. Payed 35 $ for 2 persons and a campervan on a non powered site. Facilities were old but clean, not very welcoming. Showers run by tokens. Starting point for several great walks. Register in visitor centre if arriving before 4.30pm. If later present to the hosts at the site.
Geoff Steele
Ranking: 10/10
Our favourite DoC campsite from our NZ visit. This was a surprise find, so near the town of St Arnaud. Flat campsites, with power. Kitchen with a great lake view. Clean modern toilets. We visited in September and found the showers locked, and a laundry with no machines but the DoC ranger explained these are available in high season. Some easy walks start from the camp, including one that leads back to the town. Shine a torch from the jetty in the lake after dark to bring out the long finned eels. Crystal clear water you can see the trout! Lots of birdsong in the morning, and an owl at night. While it didn't snow while we were here there was a good cover on the mountains that surround the lake, and clouds rolled in after dark that made the whole scene surreal. Check out the displays at the DoC office - lots of info there on walks, wildlife, history and the management plan for the area. The DoC ranger was incredibly helpful. We were fortunate enough to find a water taxi active on the day we arrived, and took a tour up to see Whiskey falls and the head of the lake which we recommend.
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Silvia Romeiro
Ranking: 7/10
The location is great, easy to find, even if you arrive at night like we did. Bathrooms were clean but had no showers open. Kitchen had no doors, so it was a bit cold.
The view when you wake up is priceless.
Adam Yates
Ranking: 9/10
Arrived late and got a little lost in the dark, didn't get a chance to use all the facilities but seemed very well maintained.
BUT, the walks and scenery here in the morning are incredible. Worth every penny, make sure you get up early and enjoy the Mirror Lake.
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Rosanna Leeming
Ranking: 7/10
Stunning location and clean toilets and showers. Hot showers $1 for 5 mins. We got a powered site for our campervan. Was $21 per person, per night. A little expensive, when you have to pay for showers, but the beautiful walks and birds make up for it. Host is lovely and got an overstayer to move from our spot at 1030am when we checked in. Short walk to general store with the best cheese scone I've ever had (I'm quite the connoisseur). No jet skis allowed on the lake, but good visitor centre told us to go to Lake Argyle, which was awesome with hardly anyone there and only 30 min drive.
Kath Tee
Ranking: 1/10
Superb location, fantastic facilities - not the usual bare necessities you might expect from DoC.
So one star? Well, that was thanks to appallingly incompetent management. First of all, it states you MUST make bookings. So we did, back in November. When we arrived, however, we found that someone was backed up so far they were blocking off half our site. We raised the issue with the camp host, but he didn't care as that person was there for the week and we were only staying the night. Ok. Fine. We can work around that.
Later that night, we heard an engine outside. The host was arranging with late strivers who didn't have a booking to make themselves at home on the front of our site. Given his earlier belligerence, we knew that any conversation would be unproductive.
It was hugely annoying as this was supposed to be a two site spot... but by the time we woke up, there was another vehicle shoved onto the front of our site. So, to recap, we had one party taking up a big portion of our (booked and paid for) site. Then two more vehicles were shoved onto the site at the camp host's instruction (without asking us, of course).
This sloppy attitude and disregard for the signposted and widely publicised rules was upsetting and ruined our stay. I would discourage anyone from paying $21 per person for a powered site and suggest that they head to a professionally managed campground instead. At least there you know that when you wake up in the morning there won't be random people sprawled out on the site that you thought you paid for to enjoy to yourself.
Shameful stuff, DoC. You do such great work, but you need to get the administration of this place under control. It makes a mockery of the whole system.
DOC Managed
Thanks to all the good people working for the NZ Department of Conservation - for all your hard work - making NZ more beautiful, accessable and healthy! Cheers 😍
