Existing and potential use of Orton Bradley Park, Charteris Bay, New Zealand

Abstract

Orton Bradley Park (OBP) is a private farm park located 25 kilometres south east of Christchurch in the Lyttelton Harbour basin. The Park is marketed as offering peaceful picnic, BBQ and camping areas, heritage buildings and agricultural relics, as well as extensive walking tracks through regenerating native forest, commercial forest and farmland. Over its forty years of operation, little visitor profile data has been collected, so documented evidence of the Park’s use and users is limited. Despite this lack of information on visitation, recent development proposals have been suggested for the Park, which include family-friendly mountain bike tracks, a café, plant nursery, dog exercise area, historic tours and year-round basic camping facilities. To help evaluate the appropriateness of the proposed Park developments, the purpose of this study was to better understand OBP’s current and potential visitor use and markets in order for the Orton Bradley Park Board to make informed choices about future development and marketing.