Simple pleasures at Cable Bay

It’s the small touches at Cable Bay Holiday Park that make it such a special place to visit this summer, according to owners Bert Wilkinson and Matt Sutton.

A resident campground hen, fresh flowers in the bathrooms, and painted Christmas rocks on the picnic tables greet guests when they arrive at the North Nelson destination.

Bert and Matt are now in the midst of their third summer running the holiday park and they are completely booked out until 10 January.

“The longer-stay guests are mostly Kiwis, we get a lot from Wellington and Christchurch,” Bert says.

“At the moment we’re getting a lot of foreign one-night drive-ins, it can be very unpredictable.”

Originally from Richmond, the couple used to stay at the campground regularly and sometimes helped to look after the place for the previous owners, Jo and Nigel Hunter, when they needed a break.

“Now here we are, living the dream,” Bert says.

Matt has a background as a builder while Bert worked in the mental health field for 15 years.

“The wheel was turning when we took over, we just keep it going,” Bert says.

“We’ve done little things like to improve it – new cookers in the kitchen, new lighting and stuff like that.”

The most recent addition to the holiday park is an AED machine in conjunction with Cable Bay Cafe, which was installed last month.

“It’s for anyone in the bay or camp to use,” Matt says. “It’s a nice thing to be able to give back to the community and it can get very busy here, so it’s good to have one.”

They have also set up a fully furnished pop-up tent to hire this summer as an alternative to the three popular cabins on the property.

Bert and Matt have received nothing but glowing feedback from guests.

“It’s just simple little things, you know, keeping the grass mowed and putting a bunch of flowers in the bathroom,” Bert says.

Permanent resident Henrietta the hen is always there to greet the guests and join in with the  4.30pm cheese and crackers.

“She’s been part of the park for years,” Bert says. “She’s Henrietta here, sometimes she goes over to the cafe – they call her Sage – and then David over the road calls her Lucky.”

They say the full reopening of Cable Bay Rd in June has made a huge difference to business.

The council fixed three major slips this year that were caused by the August 2022 weather event.

“We hadn’t been in business for that long, so we didn’t know how it would affect us until it reopened,” Bert says. “Then, that night, all of a sudden there were all these people coming in.”

Bert says camping is an affordable holiday option for families and they have not increased their fees in three years.

They are now looking at getting in a food truck, and also have a real fruit ice cream coming to the bay to cater for the busy summer months.

“The whole causeway can be full of cars on both sides, there is just no room on that beach in peak season.”

Bert says their point of difference is their size.

“People like not having a lot of people around. We have got got reasonable-sized sites so you’re not on top of one another. People wake up to the sound of bird song, maybe the farm dog barking and the rooster – but no one seems to mind about that.”

And the fishing and walking tracks are pretty good too, they reckon.

“The walkway is fully open again, that’s a real drawcard for people, and the fishing is another drawcard. People have been coming in small boats and the marine reserve is just around the corner,” Bert says.

“The fishing is just great, literally five minutes out in your boat and you’re there,” Matt adds.

Although there are some long days for the pair – sometimes they are working 18 hours a day in the summer – they say it’s all worth it.

“It’s the best thing we ever did, our children and grandchildren come out and enjoy it as well.”