Only a ten minute drive from the campsite brings you to Waipara with its many wineries, vineyard restaurants and cellar doors for tastings. The vineyards encompass all styles and budgets from everyday drinking to special occasions (Pegasus Bay and Black Estate). Our favorites include the family friendly Waipara Springs with its platter meals, easy drinking wines and kids sandpit along with Waipara Hills with its extensive tastings and lunches amongst the vines. Non vineyard activities include taking a trip on the Weka Pass Train (on the 1st and 3rd Sunday of each month), the olive groves, olive press and tastings of Athena Estate and the sales of homegrown produce from many small scale growers.

Ten minutes to the east of the campground brings you to the settlement of Motunau Beach. It’s a great place to retreat and enjoy the quiet seaside ambience. Sea fishing, marine wildlife watching and diving are just some of the adventures on offer. The beach with its backdrop of sea cliffs is a prized hunting ground for fossils, which occur in abundance, while the Motunau Beach Clifftop Coastal Reserve offers sweeping views of the coastline and offshore island. The beach was originally a stopping place for the Maori in canoes travelling from Kaikoura to Kaiapoi and also an early whaling station in the mid nineteenth century.

A wide variety of good fish can be caught on the various reefs around Motunau including Blue Cod, Moki, Trumpeter, Groper, Kingfish, Butterfish, Salmon, John Dory and Shark. Fish that you intend to keep should be killed and stored out of the sun, preferably chilled. Please respect the voluntary limit of 20 blue cod per person. The crays around Motunau are extremely plentiful; if you can’t catch your limit bag on less than a single tank of air, you are probably diving in the wrong place! To lessen disturbance of the population and save yourself some frustration, look for crayfish with their tails out flat; they are usually the males. Females have their tails tucked under protecting their eggs. During October and November, when the crayfish are shedding their eggs, take extra time to carefully inspect under the flaps of the female crayfish. Some may have a few traces of eggs left that could get you into trouble with the Fisheries’ Rangers.