Free CampsitesGisborne, Bay of Plenty New Zealand 🇳🇿
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10 Reviews
Female solo traveller. Was there yesterday, 13th Oct'26 at around 5 pm. No other vans parked. Only one white car by the toilet. A tatoo man came out with a can of beer holding on one hand + a cigarette on other hand. He came to me to ask for lighter. No, i dont smoke, i said. He started laughing loud like crazy. Obviously, inmediately, i left. Weirdo ppl.
The campsite itself is very nice, great beaches on either side and the toilets are kept fairly clean. However, we stayed on a Saturday night and because of the toilet and park it meant a lot of teenagers kept arriving to drink, play music etc or just arriving in the middle of the night to use the only public toilet around.
Be aware of a white Corolla driving around scouting whoever is in the cars multiple times during the day. It is safe if there's other parked there as well, and beautiful, but i definitely wouldn't recommend staying there alone. Not a welcoming vibe at all.
The place is great, there are two toilets, a bit old-fashioned but they do the job. I stayed one night in mid-June 2026 because there are very few free campsites on the east coast. I didn't feel safe (I was a woman traveling alone). There were a lot of cars driving by with loud music until at least 11 pm. I wasn't bothered, but I wasn't at ease.
WARNING The place is great: beach, park, restrooms, well located. HOWEVER! Around 8 PM, a completely drunk group came and vomited. Furthermore, at 11:30 PM, we were woken up by two men knocking on our van, demanding we open the door, somehow knowing we were two women inside. They stayed right next to our van for over 30 minutes. We called the police, but "no patrol was available." They ended up staying parked next to the park for an hour before leaving. They seemed to have bad intentions.
Large lawn with plenty of space for campers, right at a playground and each left and right a beach. The toilet was quite fine, only unfortunately at night not illuminated from inside.
Beautiful location with clean toilets and okay signal (towards the road), and a basketball hoop. Best thing was the Bhanga coffee truck (7-13, everyday except saturday).
Nice spot, right by the sea. Also next to a road, but it's not a problem as there's little traffic. Children's play area. Plenty of space and not too crowded. Good 4G reception. The toilets aren't the best maintained, but they do the job!
Tents are allowed. There are two toilets
Spacious and uncrowded spot! Clean toilets
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