End of the road for motor camp

Traditional Kiwi summer holidays pitching tents and taking boats out on fishing trips from the Whangaruru Motor Camp could soon be over.

The facility on the Parutahi Beach waterfront at Oakura, 50km north of Whangarei, is on the market through a mortgagee tender process, with tenders closing on December 6.

And Bayleys Whangarei real estate agent Ross Blomfield, who is handling the sale, is predicting it will most likely be bought by a developer and subdivided for holiday homes.

If that happens the Oakura facility will follow several other Northland campgrounds - such as the former Tropicana holiday park on the Whangarei Harbour and the Coopers Beach campground at Doubless Bay - to suffer the same fate.

A Department of Conservation report says that since 1996 there has been a six per cent reduction in camping areas around New Zealand.

The Whangaruru Motor Camp is on 59.7ha valued at $8.31 million in 2009. It contains four motel units, five cabins, 42 powered sites, 40 sites without power, a camp office and manager's house.

The Whangarei Coastal management Strategy Structure Plan has identified about 2.5ha of the campground could be appropriate for large residential sections. Whangarei District Council has indicated a subdivision without sewerage could contain 10-15 houses on 2000sq m sections, or with sewerage there could be 20 houses on 1000sq m plots.

Mr Blomfield said the site could continue operating as a campground, but he suspected it would be converted into a holiday home enclave.

"The value of coastal land has increased considerably since 2000 and while values have been realigned following the global financial crisis its intrinsic worth remains high," he said.

The Oakura campground can be bought alone, or as a combined unit with 62.6 neighbouring hectares of hill country valued at $1.047 million also up for mortgagee sale.

The hill country block has views east to the Poor Knights Islands and north to Cape Brett.