Hope for campers

A Martinborough woman whose family have holidayed for many years at two campsites threatened with closure is hopeful about South Wairarapa District Council’s [SWDC] lastminute decision to keep them open for Labour Weekend.

Martinborough resident Trinity Shaw recently presented SWDC with a petition with more than 1400 signatories opposing the closure of the campsite at Te Awaiti on the south coast. The petition had started before SWDC announced that North Tora would also be closed. However, Shaw said she opposed both closures.

She had been camping at the south coast sites since childhood and said closing the areas would be unfair to campers. She was hopeful a solution would be found to allow both campsites to remain open.

“With all the easily accessible options [to manage flooding risk] available, they can’t ignore them. At least it looks like the council are listening,” she said.

“I’m hopeful they will work with the MCB going forward.”

She said many people would already have made plans to use the sites over the summer.

“A lot of locals go out there, and people come from outside South Wairarapa and camp and fish and just catch up. It’s a really good place to catch up,” she said.

“I’ve camped with my parents for years as a child, and I’ve camped there with my dad and my kids. When I was a kid, we all used to go out there, and there would maybe be 40 of us – all my aunties and my cousins.”

Shaw’s father, Johnny Shaw, spoke at a recent meeting of the MCB. He said many families would now be without an affordable holiday option, saying it was a “bombshell of an idea”.

He said the type of flooding described by Wilson was unlikely to happen at the two campsites.

“What does happen is when the water does come down, it rises, and it goes down again. People have got the intelligence if it gets too high to move up or move out.”

He said if the weather was terrible, people generally did not camp there.

“At Te Awaiti, it’s really special because of the lake area there, which is always available for kids to play and canoe in. It’s a safe haven for them to enjoy a summer break. Many of the campers out there are low socio-economic people, and they don’t get much chance to have a holiday. I can’t believe Harry [Wilson] can pretty much cut their holidays off with the stroke of a pen,” he said.

MCB were pleased with the temporary reprieve and hoped a way forward could be agreed upon.

“All of the Martinborough Community Board welcome the decision to keep the two campgrounds open for this Labour Weekend, which will benefit residents and visitors to our District. We will work with the council and members of our community next week towards finding a long term solution for mitigating a one in 100-year flood risk with the aim to keep the campgrounds permanently open in the future,” they said.

A SWDC spokesperson said they felt sorry for campers affected by the closure.

“The council has complete empathy for campers who have frequented the sites in the past,” they said.

“Regarding the petition, the council upholds the right of anyone to voice their views on any matter. We have had one petition submitted to us last week from Trinity Shaw with 1450 signatures. The petition did not mention any of the risk factors at Te Awaiti and did not mention North Tora.”

At Te Awaiti, it’s really special because of the lake area there, which is always available for kids to play and canoe in.

- Martinborough resident

Trinity Shaw