Mrs Brown and her husband, Scott, took over managing the Danseys Pass Holiday Park near Duntroon in September.
The American couple, who are in their early 50s, made their first visit to New Zealand to mark their 30th wedding anniversary in 2007.
They walked the Milford Track, spent 12 days on motorcycles in the South Island and thought it was such a lovely place, they decided to see if they could move here.
Mr Brown later discovered the camp on the Internet.
Dansey Pass was a far cry from their old home, in a suburb of Washington D.C., in the state of Maryland which has more people than all of New Zealand.
They had previously lived in rural areas of Wisconsin and Alaska so the relative isolation was not a problem, although Mrs Brown did tell her son that he would not be able to "walk to get a soda".
The holiday park, which is nestled under the hills beside the Maerewhenua River, was opened by Bob and Ina Hutton at Christmas 1955.
Present owner Neil Thorpe is only the park's third owner.
He is still living in the area and is busy refurbishing an old miner's house, along with being involved with the Vanished World centre and trail.
The Browns' three eldest children, and their grand-daughter, remained in the US, while they moved to North Otago with four children aged between 10 and 18.
The three youngest are home-schooled.
"They love it here. They like the atmosphere of the place. They are really enjoying having new people to play with all the time," she said.
It had also been interesting for them to meet people from all over the world.
The camp was attracting international visitors, as well as regular campers who had been coming for many years and newcomers.
On Tuesday, there were about 140 people at the camp, including a large contingent of children, who were relaxing in what Mrs Brown described as a "wonderful spot".
With no cellphone coverage, people spent their days relaxing, sitting under trees or cooling off in the river.
Mrs Brown had comments from people saying the place was "magical".
While she did not know what that necessarily meant in "Kiwi speak", she guessed it meant it was a special place.
The camp had a "wonderful heritage" and people had told the couple not to change anything. "This is Kiwiana," she said.
Mr Brown was a pastor in the US and his wife an at-home mother so they were both used to dealing with people.
Mrs Brown had no regrets about the family's move to New Zealand, with the only hard thing being away from children and her grandchild.
