Southland, or even New Zealand for that matter, can be cold any time of the year.  It has even snowed at Christmas time once!  Heating is very expensive and the cost of electricity to provide heating through the winter time is astronomical.  Camp Columba is becoming more popular for sports teams to use through the winter months, eg. Ice Hockey tournaments in Gore and Rugby tournaments in Southland.  Making sure that teams are warm and well rested before the next days games is something that we want to be able to accommodate for, as well as keeping all other groups warm and happy.
 
This is the proposed plan:
PHASE ONE:  Heating Water for the Kitchen/Dining Room area and heating the Graeme Cook Lodge Dorms with a Diesel boiler system.
PHASE TWO:  Build the drying room, and heat it.
PHASE THREE:  Have another diesel boiler system at the top of the Gordon Pullar Lodge which heats the dorm rooms there and also the Top Hall.
  
The purpose of this project is to reduce our electricity bills and provide more immediate and adequate heating for our guests and to make it more 'appealing' for guests

Each dorm block area is close to $26,000.00 +GST.  We are applying for funding and also relying on donations to complete this project.  If you would like to give towards this, please click here to donate.

Camp Columba is used about 41 weeks of the year by various groups and group sizes! The little old pond that was first established over 50 years ago to hold the waste water from campers that would come for about 2 weeks of the year cannot handle the increase that is produced by the campers now. It became an environmental problem and it was essential that a new solution was found.  
We now have the new Waste Wate Treatment Plant up and running, but it has cost a lot more than was first estimated.  First quotes were between $40,000 - $100,000.  But the final costings are now breaking $300,000.  We have sought funding from many organisations and individuals and we are extremely grateful for their generosity, but we still require more funding.  If you would like to make a contribution towards this project it would be much appreciated. Every little bit helps.  Thank you.