Russell-Orongo Bay Holiday Park

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

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

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!

What you see is not what you get! Online this place looks absolutely amazing. Arrived to a not so friendly guy to check us in. We were an hour early and asked if we could park up and let the 4 kids out to play while we waited for 2pm. Was told to come back. We were 1 of 2 rooms only occupied for that night. Tired, broken, run down facilities, overgrown grounds. Very basic. The morning of check out there was no water at all. No explanation or apologies. Playground out of action with nothing on the website to say so. Just a bit disappointed as this was the only school holiday activity I'd planned for the kids and had to take time off work.

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.