Russell-Orongo Bay Holiday Park

Der Holiday-Park ist an der Zufahrtsstraße nach Russel ganz gut gelegen. Man muss allerdings noch 5 Minuten bis zur Ortschaft fahren. Russel selbst ist eine tolle kleine Ortschaft, welche auch schöne Strände bietet. Der Holiday-Park hat einen Pool und mehrere Außensitzbereiche, die ganz nett sind. Ein Teil der Cabins hat auch Außenbestuhlung mit Tisch, sowie ein Lounge-Ei. Die Cabins wurden über den Tag unerträglich heiß. Erst am Abend war die Luft darin zu ertragen. Lüften war nur schwer möglich, da man keinen Durchzug herstellen konnte. Da half auch der Ventilator nicht viel. Die weiteren Einrichtungen wie Küche, Innen-Gemeinschaftsbereich und Bad sind etwas in die Jahre gekommen und benötigen etwas mehr Aufmerksamkeit. Dort sollte man nicht allzu viel erwarten. Die Grundausstattung ist aber gegeben. Da die Unterkunft auf Tankwasser-Versorgung angewiesen ist, gab es bei uns den Zwischenfall, dass wir für 2-3h kein Wasser hatten, bis wir die Inhaber informiert haben. Das Internet ist auf 500MB pro Tag pro Device limitiert, was uns etwas störte. Der Park will hier zusätzlich Geld verdienen und verkauft Datenpässe.

Should have read the reviews before booking. I’ve tried to reach out several times to the owner to address this before resorting to a review but they have opted to ignore me. Place could be great but management are totally out of their depth and should not be in hospitality. Our cabin had no working shower so could not have one and sat 2am the fire alarm went off waking us and everyone else up. It was the sound of a normal alarm rather than a faulty or dying battery so upon waking and seeing there was no fire we concluded it could be a carbon monoxide alarm. My young son had felt nauseous earlier which is unlike him so we opened all the doors and windows and stayed awake all night fearful our kids and us would die in the night of monoxide leak in the cabin. At 4am the roosters start crowing anyway so I’d be woken by that (who on earth thinks it’s a good idea to have roosters in an area people go for SLEEP!) the mind boggles. At 430am the alarm started again this time going off every 5 mins long and loud waking the entire camp ground. We realised only then it was faulty but couldn’t turn it off or remove it. About 830 after hours of beeping and nightmare noise the manager came over with a new alarm carrying the beeping one off in his hands. Later told us that this alarm worked fine lol yeh whatever you say. Eyeroll. Was told they would be in touch about a partial refund since the entire point of the place is a shower and sleep of which we received neither. I’m minded to reverse the credit card charges. In all terrible service and they are running the place to the ground. Such a shame as they could have a good thing here with repeat business but they have no love for the place or the people who pay them!

The birdlife made the stay very special, Chickens, Ducks, Pukeko, Weka are pottering about outside your front door! There is also a Kiwi track. You hear Kiwis all night long and with a bit of luck you can spot them - as we did 😎. The campsite is very lovely with a great pool. The amenities need a complete overhaul. Kelly and Shaune running it were super friendly, extremely helpful and run the site with a lot of passion. They seam to know everything about the wildlife, Russel and the history of the Bay of Islands. It’s only 3km from the centre of Russell. Will definitely stay there again if we’re in the area. Sue and Max