Tawharanui Tents Only Campground

As Tāwharanui is a surf beach, Miss 10 and I hadn’t rushed to visit this campground during the summer season, preferring to stay at campgrounds located near calmer waters so that Miss 10 (who is still gaining confidence on the water) could go out on her stand up paddle board.

With summer quickly drawing to a close, we thought it was only fair to let the boys have a surfing weekend and when we saw that the Tawharanui Tents Only Campground had one (singular) weekend in February with four open spaces it seemed like fate and we rang the booking line immediately.

Surf’s Up

In fact, at Tawharanui, securing a booking is actually quite the feat! Located a “short” one hour drive north of Auckland it’s one of, if not the most popular campground that the Auckland Regional Council manages and with a maximum of 200 people it’s definitely the biggest, which I was quite worried about (as I generally don’t like people) but even on a fully booked out weekend there was a tonne of space, in fact I never even had to wait to use a toilet!

Speaking of toilets they were uber clean and not at all smelly vault (which I think is a fancy word for long drop) toilets, the compliment of them all was from Miss 10 who said they were “no where near as bad as I expected” and how fancy is this, there was a soap dispenser!

Soap!

But I’m getting ahead of myself .. 😉

Upon arrival at the Tawharanui Regional Park, follow the signage to reach the campground. Behind the locked gate and past the stockyard you’ll reach a fork in road. Veering left takes you into the smaller all modes campground. To reach the bigger tents only campground continue to the right. After entering the Tawharanui Tent Only Campground, the camp is divided into 5 bays (3 of which are closed off over the winter period) with a central road.

One thing I will note is that the campground is far from a vast flat stretch of land. It’s VERY undulating which I guess doesn’t matter too much if you have a small tent, but for those of you who like to set up a castle, expect it to be a slightly lopsided one.

For more information please check the Auckland Regional Council website.

Till Next Time