The Department of Conservation (Doc) will consider two potential bids to upgrade and lease one of the most popular camping grounds in the Catlins.
Two expressions of interest were received from submitters based in the Otago-Southland area to make much needed improvements to the Papatowai Camping Ground and then to lease the facility, which attracts hundreds of visitors each summer.
Doc communications spokesman John Gordon said both expressions will now be studied. All other details were confidential.
Doc management will soon decide which one, if either, is suitable.
If one bidder is picked, they will probably be invited to submit a tender and other information into a business plan.
The camping ground, 24km southwest of Owaka, has become a victim of its own success, with soaring visitor numbers testing its infrastructure, especially its ability to safely dispose of sewage.
Its lease to operate the camp expires on November 8 and the camp effectively closes then for the summer.
In an earlier statement, Doc's Otago conservancy acting community relations manager Ken Stewart said Doc wanted the site's character retained to ensure any development was within the concept of a "basic Kiwi camping experience".
The two bidders would be asked to prepare proposals to overhaul the camping ground's waste systems and carry out other development. Doc has acknowledged the facilities, built in the 1980s, were not designed for the level of use the camp had received at peak periods in recent years.
The camp would stay closed while upgrades were being carried out.
The site of almost 2.5ha already has a three-bedroom house, garages and gardens, an ablution block, kitchen, power points, tent sites and barbecue facilities.
