KEY POINTS:
A group of Coromandel campers are banding together to save their camping ground from closure and residential redevelopment.
Kuaotunu Motor Camp has been a holiday home for thousands of campers since it opened in the 1970s.
Spread under shady trees on a 2ha site across the road from
Grays Beach, between Kuaotunu and Rings Beach, the camp shows obvious signs of campers' attachment to it. Many sites have structures built around caravans and tents and some visitors have built small cabins on their sites.
The pace is slow and relaxed, the fishing is fruitful and the campers are determined to keep their piece of paradise. But their bid to buy the multi-million-dollar camp has been fraught.
Owner Mike Savage announced in November he was going to sell after seven years of ownership.
Shocked regular campers got together and decided there was only one thing for it. They told Mr Savage they wanted to buy the camp and the adjoining 6.5ha. While sympathetic to their cause, Mr Savage doubted they could find the asking price of $3.5 million and put the camp up for tender.
Huntly developer Steve Godley emerged as the buyer, and the sale process continued.
But just before Christmas the campers heard about the purchase of Mangawhai's Riverside Holiday Park by its long-term campers.
Kuaotunu campers' committee chairman Ross Dunn and treasurer Russell Loveridge went to Mangawhai for advice.
"It was a turning point. We thought we could see a way to do it and we put our proposal to Mike," Mr Dunn says.
It was a godsend for Mr Savage, who was feeling the pressure from his sale. "I originally got out of farming to get into the camping ground. I could sell the farm and no one cared but now I'd met all these people and I felt so guilty for ruining part of their lives."
Mr Godley agreed to withdraw if the campers could come up with the money, and Mr Savage and another investor said they would contribute funds to make up any shortfall.
At a meeting of regular campers on December 30, the committee disclosed their plan to form a company and sell 90 shares at $33,000 a pop.
Each share entitles the owners to buy a lease on a site in the Bluff Rd camp. Leases for units on prime spots are going for more than $100,000. A small number of sites will be kept for casual campers.
The response was electrifying. Mr Savage says it's been like a gold rush: 65 of the 90 shares have been sold, with buyers paying an immediate deposit. Everyone is confident the scheme will work. Mr Dunn and Mr Loveridge say they didn't think twice about committing themselves to the scheme.
Six years ago, Mr Dunn had to leave another camp at Kuaotunu when it was sold to a developer and he wasn't about to have that happen again. "I didn't have to think very hard. There's nowhere else to go. This is a unique part of the world."
Mr Loveridge, a Papakura construction manager, says he fell in love with the place when he first camped there five years ago.
"It's a great spot. The campers are very friendly ... You meet such a mixture of people and if you're sitting outside, everyone stops for a chat."
Mr Dunn says a number of people there have come from camps that have closed down. Mr Savage estimates up to 15 camps on the peninsula have closed in the past seven years.
"Unless they're protected, these camps will go," says Mr Dunn. "Where does Joe Average go when he doesn't want a million-dollar bach or doesn't have the money for one?"