Southland District Council is scrambling to find someone to run the Curio Bay campground this summer after the trust that leased the popular Catlins site walked away from an expired lease.

The campground, just over an hour's drive from Invercargill, has been closed since April. A council report has warned it could stay shut over the peak season unless a short-term operator is found.

At an extraordinary meeting on 12 October, councillors asked staff to assess three options and report back by the end of November:

  • the operator of the neighbouring Curioscape cafe and visitor centre taking on the campground as well
  • an independent operator running the site
  • automated systems with a caretaker on site

Trust and council at odds over timing

The site was leased by the South Catlins Charitable Trust, whose operator left earlier this year. When the lease ran out, the trust pulled out of the arrangement.

Curio Bay Accommodation owner and former trustee Nick Stratford said the matter should have been settled in June, when the trust was told the lease had expired, and described the way it had been handled as neglect.

The council rejects that account. Acting group manager Jendi Paterson said the council had been reviewing the site since April and had discussed its future with the trust well before the lease ended. Both parties agreed the old arrangement was not fit for purpose, she said, so the council chose not to roll it over.

Curioscape, which sits on the same council-owned land, is also closed. The trust has agreed the campground could be bundled into a package offered to a new operator for both facilities.

What the site costs

The council has been paying for water to be trucked to Curio Bay since at least 2019, after the trust's bore became unusable because of salt contamination. Water deliveries alone cost $29,700 last financial year.

In total the council spent about $84,000 at the site last year on water, rubbish collection, maintenance and its contribution to the trust, while the trust paid only a nominal lease.

The popular seaside campground recorded about 17,300 nights of use in 2025, most of them over summer, which is why the timing of the lease dispute matters: the busiest weeks of the year begin in December.

Curio Bay, on the Southern Scenic Route, is known for its 180-million-year-old petrified forest and for the yellow-eyed penguins, or hoiho, that come ashore there. The campground sits on the headland above the bay.

Staff are due to report back on the three options before the end of November, leaving the council a narrow window to have the gates open before the Christmas holidays.