Margaret Rae said when she and her husband Donald took over the park in 2001, they worked hard to get it up to a high standard.
It was "quite sad" to see the park fall into disrepair 24 years later, she said.
Last Wednesday, the Gore District Council announced it was terminating the lease after years of ongoing health and safety issues in the camp.
Eviction letters were handed to 30-40 residents that morning, giving them 50 days’ notice to move out.
The park has been dogged by accusations of gang occupation and decline since operator Nicholas Irons took over in 2022.
Mr Irons told the Otago Daily Times in 2023 the accusations were "rumours" and the camp was providing a valuable community service.
Mrs Rae said during her seven years at the park it was a clean, social and popular holiday spot.
She remembered repeat guests from places such as the United States, Australia and Canada who came every year during the fishing season.
The New Zealand Gold Guitar Awards was always a great weekend and Southern Field Days in Waimumu made the park busy, Mrs Rae said.
They also had school groups frequenting the park for Gore sporting events.
"We had good clientele," she said.
The couple introduced motel units on the property as well as an extra cabin and on-site caravans.
Their camp makeover won a "Turn Around Award" at one of the holiday park conferences they attended in about 2004, she said.
After seven years, they had "done their dash" at that kind of job and retired to Papatowai in the Catlins.
"It’s 24/7, seven-days-a-week, really," she said.
Mrs Rae said when she and her husband were operating the park, her husband mowed the lawns "frequently", the council tended to the gardens, and they had a cleaner for the toilets, if they weren’t doing it themselves.
"There was always nice comments in the book about how clean it was and how well-kept it was."
The types of people who had been staying at the park recently made the park an undesirable place to stay, she said.
"All those people that are staying there now ... other people don’t want to stay there," she said.
They had a few issues in the early 2000s, but were on hand to manage it.
"We had a few problems now and again, but nothing that wasn’t sorted," she said.
"But nothing like they’ve got now, that’s for sure."
