Topic: Camping in Rotorua
Topic type:
c1929 - to present
The New Zealand Tourist League was instrumental in the establishment of camping grounds in New Zealand as early as c1928 .
The Auckland Star of 14 August 1928 reported that "there were over fifty official camps in the North Island." and "The object of motorists' camps, of course, is to provide attractive sites for motorists carrying their own camping equipment, who desire to make short or long visits for sight-seeing or shopping"
"Already motor camping sites have been equipped at Rotorua, Te Aroha, Tauranga, Whangarei, Hamilton, Te Kuiti, Hellensville and over forty other places in the North Island, and at Queenstown and a few other places in the South Island" The article goes on to outline the "Requisites for a Camp Site" including the necessity of a custodian.
Source : Papers Past.
Rotorua's Municipal Camping Ground is said to have started out in Devon Street near the Fenton Street end, then moving to a plot previously known as "Steele's 40 acres" which was covered in pine trees (Peggy Allen "Rotorua people 1880s to 1940s" pg87), In 1953 the Municipal Camping Gound was moved and sited at 463 Old Taupo Road, this has been a camping ground ever since and has been in private hands since 1970s as the Rotorua Thermal Motor Camp.
