5 Star Friends at a 5 Star Campsite. [Imported from Google Reviews]
5 Star Friends at a 5 Star Campsite.
It would be hard to fault Ohope Beach TOP 10 and unfair if I did. It's a fantastic spot. A great setting. It has amazing facilities. And a caring, attentive, diligent staff.
We came here for Christmas with our kids and another family. We loved hopping between the ocean and the pool. Fuelling up on barista coffee (coffee on a campsite!) and ice cream. Bouncing on the jumping pillow. And doing it all again.
My eldest had a blast on a body board - catching some perfect waves and riding them with a massive smile. The little one loved jumping, splashing and getting knocked around by the surf. And this is where things took a turn for me - and this reviewing thing started getting weird again. I mean can the campsite take credit for my kids enjoying the waves. I suppose they provided the waves and the lifeguards to make things safe. But we brought the body board...
For Christmas day I made lamb and ham on the BBQ. It was epic. Are the epic-ness of my BBQ skills spilling over into this five star review? Could it be that all of my reviews are affected by where I'm currently sitting on my own star scale? Is every review I've done - really a review of me?
I was worried. So I spoke to our camping friends about my reviewing problem.
They're easy company. Fun, interesting, tolerant people (they tolerated this ridiculous personal crisis). Good sorts. We like hanging out and doing things together and they are there for us when life get's real. Five star folk.
We considered if it's possible to separate our experience of the campsite from any review of the campsite itself? They considered if it mattered.
I'd love to say that our chat made me feel better. But it didn't. Now I'm worried that my review of the campsite is, at least in part, a review of the friends we went camping with. Could any of my friends ever conflate my star rating of a place with their performance when we visited it? I go a lot of places with my Wife - i hope she isn't checking my reviews!
Of course - my five star Friends and Family have told me to stop overthinking it. Five star advice that I suspect I won't follow.
Luckily, on this occasion, Ohope Beach TOP 10, Myself, my Friends, my Wife and my Kids all made this visit one of the best Christmas holidays I've ever had. I would recommend any of them to any of you.
But since I'm keeping my friends and family to myself you'll have to settle for visiting this five star campsite with your own five star folk.