The Mackenzie, Joyce, Bray and Hamilton families, which can extend to about 20 adults and children at the peak of the Christmas holiday season, have been going to the same Waitangi boat harbour site next to ''the big tree'' for about 12 years, but the Hamiltons have been camping at the Waitaki lakes on other sites for about 25 years.
This year for the first time the children came up with a name for the camp - ''Camp Bottle Top''. That sits on a pole stuck into a giant wooden cable spool, also transported to the site, along with a Christmas tree, for the first time.
''It [the cable spool] came up on a trailer, was bloody heavy so it's going to stay here,'' Graeme Hamilton said when asked whether it was going home with the rest of the camp after Easter.
They are discussing ways of anchoring it so it stays at their site.
''Someone tried to steal it a few weekends ago and roll it into the [boat] harbour, but they got caught and put it back.''
The camp's name comes from bottle tops fastened to the cable spool - the children hope over the years to cover it with them.
To ensure they get ''their site'' each year, the windbreak netting fence is put up to mark out the boundaries and caravans parked on site from mid-September. They stay until the official closing of lakes camp sites in May. In between, the families spend a lot of time there - ''most weekends'', Mr Hamilton said.
And the attraction?
''It's right by the lake, it's an hour's drive from home so we can come when we like, the company's good and there's no mobile phone reception.''
