Mount campground memories: Sixty-eight years on the same patch of lawn

Lindsay Tisch has just celebrated his 68th anniversary of summers at the Mount Maunganui campground, while wife Leonie celebrated her Queen's Service Medal. Photo / Leah Tebbutt

There is simply no place Lindsay Tisch would rather be than parked up in his campervan, nestled under Mauao with a view of the hot sandy beach.

"It is a different world here and this is why we keep coming back."

In fact, he has kept coming back to the Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park 68 times.

Lindsay has just celebrated his 68th anniversary of summers at the Mount location.

"It was 1952, and I was only small, but in those days there was only one row [out the front] because that was all beach."

Lindsay had stayed at the popular camping spot since he was a child and the tradition continued after marrying his wife Leonie.

The pair settled in a different spot atop of the raised area "which has a much better view", Lindsay giggled.

From Matamata, it is not far from home for the pair, and now they are retired they try to escape for three weeks.

"We set up a few days before Christmas, then pop home for Christmas Day then we come back again and start our holiday stress-free," Lindsay said.

But this holiday was extra special, with Leonie receiving a Queen's Service Medal for services to health and the community and 40 years of volunteering for various organisations.

It left Leonie stunned, but with Lindsay previously serving in government for 14 years, it gave another reason to come to the beach.

"We come here to be incognito really," Lindsay joked.

Yet when they were busy in their careers, there was one year the pair could spend only two nights in what they describe as paradise.

"But now that is behind us we decide what we are going to do in our time, and that is why we sit here and then all of a sudden we realise it is 12pm but we are still having morning tea," Leonie said.

Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park manager Mark Hales said spare patches of grass are hard to find at this time of year. Photo / File

Manager of the campground Mark Hales said he was no stranger to stories like that of the Lindsays, having met many couples who had come for 50 to 60 years.

But he said, the key to having a patch of grass to pitch your tent was booking in very well in advance.

"We're basically full for the next summer already," Hales said.

"We were even getting phone calls right up until 8pm on New Year's Eve with people looking for a place to pitch their tent, but we just have to turn them away."

He said bookings are looking the same as last year, with basically no spots available until January 16 and having been fully booked since Boxing Day.

"Which is fantastic because the more people to enjoy the place, the better."