Some of the South’s best holiday parks could soon be run by Australians, sparking fears of a loss of the New Zealand way of camping.

An Australian investor has applied to buy the lease for five holiday parks at Glendhu Bay, Wānaka, Albert Town, Queenstown and Arrowtown.

The all-but-confirmed sale is to a family, whose name has not been publicly disclosed.

Regular Glendhu Bay campers are worried their favourite lakeside holiday spot will not be run as an “affordable Kiwi camp” and tourism revenue will disappear offshore.

The camping ground lease was recently put up for sale by CCR Ltd, which is co-owned by Queenstown couple Erna and the late Tonnie Spijkerbosch, and Rudi and Aggie Sanders, of Wānaka.

All five camps are covered by a single $3.2 million lease agreement CCR Ltd reached in 2014 with the landowner, the Queenstown Lakes District Council.

The original lease still had about 21 years to run, Sanders confirmed yesterday, when contacted by the Otago Daily Times.

“It is a bit early. It is not official. It is still at the Overseas Investment Office but there is a 99.9 per cent chance it will happen,” Sanders said.

Dunedin man Peter Martin has camped at Glendhu Bay for about 60 years.

He said in a letter to the ODT yesterday he was shocked to learn at Easter the lease was being sold to Australians.

He said campers understood the buyers owned other camps in Australia and wanted to extend their portfolio into New Zealand.

“The word I am hearing is that the way these camps are run is nothing like the way traditional Kiwi camps like Glendhu operate.

“Things like reducing the size and increasing the number of sites and hiking camp fees over peak periods were mentioned,” Martin said.

Campers’ other concerns included keeping tourism revenue in New Zealand and honouring the Scaife family’s gift of land for the Glendhu Bay camp in the 1920s.

That gift was “on the proviso it was to remain in perpetuity as an affordable camp for everyday Kiwis”.

“Once foreign control takes over, what guarantees have we of that happening?” Martin said.

Sanders said he wanted to reassure campers the lease terms and conditions would not change just because there would be a new leaseholder.

The partnership with Erna and Tonnie Spijkerbosch had been unique and it was unfortunate Tonnie Spijkerbosch had died recently, he said.

“We tried to buy the shares but found the banks were not keen to invest in tourism during the Covid downturn so we put the lease on the market.”

Little interest was shown by New Zealanders and a single lease over five camps did not suit mum and dad investors, Sanders said.

He said two Australian interests opened negotiations but he and his wife declined one because it was “very corporate, very business-like” and they felt it did not match the values of a Kiwi-style camp, “especially at Glendhu Bay”.

The second company was family-owned and more in line with Queenstown-Lakes camping values and objectives, he said.

“It is a very restrictive lease. We have had to ask permission for every step we took from the council. We have built up quite a lot of trust with the council, spent between $6 million and $7 million on the parks, especially on the Wānaka side of the hill, and especially at Glendhu Bay,” Sanders said.

He understood people were worried but the lease terms meant the Glendhu Bay land would “forever be a classic Kiwi park”, with public access retained.

Deputy mayor Quentin Smith, of Wānaka, said councillors were aware of the lease reassignment but had to let it go through the process.

“The leaseholders do have the right to sell for due value. The council has limited control over who the lease is assigned to. We don’t choose who it goes to,” he said.

However, the council would have an ongoing relationship with the new leaseholder to ensure the camp was operating under the requirements of the existing lease, the Reserves Act and the district plan.

If the new owner wanted to develop any of the five camps, council approval would be needed, Smith said.

“I certainly appreciate that people want to ensure the Kiwi camp experience is protected and I certainly share that view.. Glendhu Bay is the literal postcard for the Kiwi holiday experience. We want to protect that for future generations,” he said.

A Queenstown Lakes District Council spokesman said the council also retained “oversight of the pricing structure”.

A spokeswoman for the Overseas Investment Commission said a lease transfer application was being considered.

She could not provide detail about decision timings.