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Story: Camping

Tui Glen camp, 1933

Tui Glen camp, 1933

Tui Glen in Henderson, West Auckland, is thought to be the oldest registered camping ground in New Zealand. It was opened by Claude Brookes in 1924, and originally only catered for those arriving in private motor cars or on motorcyles. By 1933, when this advertisement appeared, the camp also welcomed pedestrians and cyclists. It offered donkey rides, boat and canoe hire, and huts adapted from ships' cabins. In 2002 the Waitakere City Council closed the site after public concern over long-term occupants. Several of its historic buildings were later restored and reopened.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: B-K 943-8

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Mark Derby, Camping – The golden age of camping, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/ephemera/39187/tui-glen-camp-1933 (accessed 23 June 2026).

Story by Mark Derby, published 26 November 2012.

Comments

c.rawlinga
17 August 2015
I have found a nice photo taken of my brother and I fishing on the wharf in Tui Glen Camp 1951.We had arrived from post-war Europe to find this lovely haven while father was looking for work....Sad to think that it has closed, whatever was the Council thinking of...