Russell-Orongo Bay Holiday Park

Very friendly managers, always feels comfortable going there and all around awesome place for kids and dogs

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!

Overall I wish this place was good. The location and the nature surrounding it were incredible however the holiday park had several short comings. To keep it short - water pressure in shower was a trickle at best - Kitchen was filthy and the freezer had been recently emptied and food was left out on the side to defrost/stink out. - Morning of check out there was no water in the whole camp and no explanation from any staff as to why.