It’s winter now and the trees have gone through their autumn change, it has been absolutely magnificent to watch the beautiful colours change from day to day. Now we just wait for the spring to change them all again, if you get a chance come out for a picnic in spring or even early camping, the colours are so much brighter in spring than in summer.

We have had a few people come in and stay with us during the last couple of months, one lovely couple came for one night and ended up staying for a week, they so enjoyed having the place pretty much to themselves.

The snow did not affect us much at all, we are just that much lower than Oxford and fairly sheltered. We had to take our grandson to one of our neighbours down the street to make a snow man. In case you didn’t know we are usually between 4 and 7 degrees warmer than Oxford and we do not get the cold easterly wind that spoils Christchurch. We have had some lovely days, we even had to mow the lawns.

Our thanks to all those who chose to stay with us for their holidays this year we are really enjoyed catching up with returning campers and meeting all the new people who made Ashley Gorge Holiday Park their destination.

Our Facebook page is still proving a hit, with campers and visitors to the reserve. I thought I would be able to manage a new photo a day, but we got so busy I was lucky if I got one every second day. Thanks to those who were happy to be included. We have now reached 200 likes and hope that builds when people start thinking about summer holidays.

Many of the people who stayed this year have rebooked for next year, if they all confirm later in the year, there are not going to be many of our powered sites left for that very busy time around New Year. I think people appreciate our policy to encourage families, rather than big noisy groups. There are still lots of sites available before and after New Year, so if you want to camp with a bit more space around you, come on out then.