The Hanmer Springs Forest Camp is thrilled to be awarded the Tourism and Hospitality Award in the North Canterbury Business Awards in 2016.
The red carpet gala event, held late September, saw 350 people from around North Canterbury and over 60 businesses represented.
The judges said: “An excellent example of what can be achieved by a camp committed to sustainability and the education of its users.”
The Hanmer Springs Forest Camp has been providing schools with a unique overnight camp experience for over 38 years.
Set in four hectares backing onto the Hanmer Forest and overlooking Mt Isobel, the camp is an ideal spot to bring your school, whether it’s a class, a whole year level or whole school.
We can accommodate up to 200 people in cabins, huts and units and have tent sites within a large grassy camp ground which holds 100-plus people.
The Forest Camp is a charitable trust which was gifted to the local community from the Forestry Service in 1978 to provide low-cost school camps to ensure every child in New Zealand gets the opportunity to experience learning outside the classroom by attending overnight camps.
It’s also ideal for school sports groups, music, dance and art and craft camps as well as teacher team-building camps.
The camp works with Activity Hanmer who provides schools with activities from tree climbing, mountain biking, orienteering, overnight bush camps and team, confidence building and much more.
You can self-cater as our kitchens are set up to cook and cater for 25 to 120 people, or you can take the worry out of catering and book our local caterer, Rusty Carrot, who will put together a menu for your group.
The Forest Camp provides exclusive use of the grounds to schools during New Zealand school terms so you can be safe in the knowledge casual campers won’t be sharing facilities with your school.
Over the past year the camp managers, Selwyn and Elizabeth Meaclem, have made several changes to improve the experience for schools. A major success has been to raise over $700,000 towards their “Connect to town sewerage” project which is due to start in November. This will allow their next project to become a reality with a large multi-purpose indoor facility being planned.
Some of the changes made over the past two years include:
- Earlier arrival time from 12.30pm and later departure time of 11am to suit bookings with Activity Hanmer. The charges for early and late check-in/out have been removed.
- Cutlery and crockery are now available free of charge to schools. A lot of schools want the students to be responsible for bringing and washing their own utensils and we still encourage this. We have built an outdoor sink for students to do dishes in out of an old up-cycled kitchen sink and BBQ.
- Winter heating charges of $2.50 per cabin per night have also been dropped. We want to encourage more schools to come to the camp in winter which can be a magical time of year with some snow around and the thermal pools and slides an ideal place to visit on a cold winter’s day.
- The men’s and teachers shower/toilet blocks now have radiator heating off their eco-wood boiler providing warmth in the cold seasons. The Maling and Reid kitchen also have good radiator heating ensuring all facilities are warm and healthy for schools.
- Working on making the camp fully sustainable, we have introduced Bokashi food scrap composting, encouraged better recycling, and water and energy conservation. We are happy to do a free interactive tour with schools demonstrating these environmental initiatives. Just book your tour prior to your stay.
Work has begun on a riparian restoration project to remove the weeds around the stream and turn the area into an adventure playground with native plants introduced. Schools are welcome to take part of this project for those looking at community and environmental projects.
The camp has a number of volunteers from International Volunteer Services Abroad who will spend 12 months living and volunteering at the camp. If you are looking for some great free activities for your school group, the volunteers have a hosts of games to play.
The Spring and Summer terms are very popular at the camp, but limited availability is still available for Term 4 2016 and Term 1 2017 with more availability in the Second and Third terms 2017.
Phone: 03 315 7202 or email reservations@hanmerforestcamp.co.nz
For further information and pricing go to www.hanmerforestcamp.co.nz