HAWKES BAY: NAPIER

09-Nov-13

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Marine Parade PDS

star rating of 3

by Chris Gaelic

Marine Parade, Napier, Hawkes Bay

Phone: 06 835 7579

rvexplorer id: 17847

Lat-Long: -39.50953, 176.91801

Entrance to the carpark, toilet, and dump station

Entrance to the carpark, toilet, and dump station

 

No Overnight Camping sign

 

Wind surfing the cycleway

Wind surfing the cycleway

 

Marine Parade Pump Track

Marine Parade Pump Track

 

 

The Marine Parade PDS has a beach parking area and public toilet as well as the dump station.

 

It would also make a really nice location for self contained motor caravanners to park overnight, except for the prominent sign in the entrance forbidding overnight camping. 

 

However, like most of such signs by the Napier district council, it isn't clear whether overnight camping is the same as overnigtht parking in a self-contained van.

 

In other parking areas, it is specified that no parking is allowed on the reserve, implying that means the grassed area rather than the sealed parking area, which would obviously be intended to be used for parking vehicles.

 

We have driven past at night and seen motorhomes parked here, and have also parked overnigtht ourselves, without any intervention from council security staff.

 

It's a pity that this isn't made more clear, as councils all around New Zealand each appear to have diffferent rules and interpretation of camping versus parking. It's confusing for a New Zealander travelling around, let alone for our overseas visitors.

 

Update: 3-April-2015

We called in to empty our toilet cassette and found that the council have built a really nice Pump Track for mountain bikers. While it is a great addition, it makes using the public dump station rather more difficult as you have to back in, and there are a lot more cars parked there.

 

Perhaps the council are planning a different location for the dump station. We'll check next time we're in Napier.

 

Running along the cycleway

 

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