Locals blast 'filthy' freedom campers

08 May 2012 07:18p.m.

Richard King wrote:

As a nz freedom camper of over 30 years the answer is simple. Carry a porta potty for toilet in your van or car or a 10l bucket and bags with chemical and use 20l containers for grey waste dish water etc Don,t liter leave your camp over as clean as possible make cheap hire van company s provide porta pottys etc Deposit waste at sites provided And yes few more loos in convenient locations

16 Dec 2010 11:17a.m.

murray wrote:

get over yourselves you turkeys, backpacking is part of tourism. dickheads!

16 Dec 2010 02:44a.m.

luke wrote:

a few lazy/grub backpackers spoiling it for the majority. if you cant hold it to a tiolet, bag it, like i do for my dog. i have been traveling the east coast of australia for six months and have always found toilet facilities at semi remote national parks within australia. maybe the problem lies with lack of facilities. The reporter mentions when questioning a camper that "i didnt see any toilets along the way." Where do day trip visitors relieve themselves?

01 Dec 2010 04:05p.m.

Mark wrote:

The only way to solve this is to outlaw campers with no toilet built in;simple. The travellers need to be made aware that it is very cheap to stay in the many 1st class backpackers hostels around the country- probably as cheap as hiring the van- $20-$30 per person per night.
It is obvious that a few are going to spoil it for the rest, but we cannot allow our "Clean Green, 100% pure" image to be tarnished.
As a side issue, many of these vans are converted imports that have already been thrown off the roads of Japan- so why do we allow them to be imported in the first place?

01 Dec 2010 02:20p.m.

garry millar wrote:

having been a mobile home traveller for some years I have spent a lot of money in becomming self contained so as to freedom camp and move on leaving no pollution or rubbish. Over the last few years since noticing these unequiped small campers appearing on the roads I have observed the pollution problems refered to on campbell live. It is interesting to note that the person responsible for ther introduction has been nominated BY EARNST YOUNG as young entrepenuer of the year!

01 Dec 2010 11:42a.m.

tesh wrote:

I am a free camper in Australia and own my own van and have spent years travelling in it and have NEVER done a #2 on the open ground and left it lying there with toilet paper and all. EWW.
Perhaps a reasonable and pro-active solution would be to allow people to free camp in places like parking lots for parks and beaches which DO have toilets and would otherwise be unused at night, instead of putting up no-camping signs everywhere and fineing people.
You could have limits to the hours people are allowed to be there, say only between 7pm and 7am - and only for 1 night. If you provide a reasonable alternative you should be able to rectify the problem.
You can't expect the threat of fines and no camping rules to stop people from trying to free camp.

01 Dec 2010 12:56a.m.

Norm wrote:

It's interesting reading the comments and watching the finger pointing, but the blame lays on both parties depending on how you look at it. The campervan company who doesn't educate and let their customers know the basic rules of using public toilets and doesn't provide basic booklets from the AA with DOC campsites and waste stations all over New Zealand are to blame first and foremost. If a company does this and the campers still go ahead and spoil our beautiful country then it falls solely on them. Another big problem as well is people who buy campers from other travelers as well. There is no chance of education. I also noticed travelers on here who defended their positions saying that there is no way that they would pay for parking up the camper vans in a camper carpark and that there should be more overnight parking spots. Fair point, the argument to that is, who is going to maintain these areas? Whose going to pick up the litter? Maintain the toilets? Keep the camper carpark in a state where you would want to use it? These things don't just pay for themselves, plus, lets be serious, it's $10 per person or sometimes campervan in most campsites to park up over night, is that really to much to ask for the ability to have up kept places such as these? In alot of cases you can go into these areas and use these faculties while your driving through the country on your way to your next destination. Use them, kiwi's would be alot happier for you to use these facilities during the day for free than step in poo or have our streams, rivers or lakes polluted by human waste and cleaning detergents used to wash your dishes.

30 Nov 2010 11:58p.m.

Glocks wrote:

Kevin, it might interest you to know that Kiwis are tourists too, and every year thousands of them head to Europe to....you guessed it, FREEDOM CAMP! Do you really think they are any different to the people in this article?

Of course there's no excusing the behaviour of some of these visitors, but I get fed up when the media continually implies it is a problem unique to this country.

30 Nov 2010 08:59p.m.

H and S wrote:

There are two issues here. The first is money. The people hiring/buying cheap camper vans do so because they are cheap. If they had the money, they'd hire/buy a bigger camper van with a toilet. They avoid campgrounds because they are expensive for what's provided. It is not reasonable to charge $6-20pp for use of a toilet. New Zealand taxpayers provide free RV dump stations all over the country for those that can afford self-contained RV's. New Zealand taxpayers also provide toilets, rubbish bins, and carparks that are free to the public for 16 hours of the day. Then, they hire security people to lock them up for 8 hours, and to point would-be freedom campers toward money-making campgrounds. Some councils seem to have found a reasonable alternative. Timaru provides free 3-night parking right on Caroline Bay with toilets and rubbish bins. There is no litter, and because people are there 24 hours a day, there is no graffiti. The incremental cost of this policy is probably better than zero! Other councils could do likewise, but would surely incur the wrath of local campgrounds. The second issue is not-in-my-backyard locals. Hawea Lake is surrounded almost exclusively by private property, but there is a DOC campground at Bushy Point, and a free campground at Timaru Creek. However, locals have erected "Private Property-No Camping" signs on both access roads that suggest that these public facilities don't exist. They just want to turn their area into a gated community. These selfish people have found their piece of paradise and don't want to share it with anyone else, foreign tourist or fellow Kiwi. Let me be clear. I don't approve of the acts of these freedom campers. I support heavy fines for littering. I think all camper van hires should provide a trowel with instructions on sanitary practices, or a folding toilet seat equipped with plastic bags. There is a problem, but there are solutions. Unfortunately, Campbell Live is more interested in hyping the former.

30 Nov 2010 03:03p.m.

Kevin wrote:

There are public toilets in every town and at every service station. Most if not all Doc Camp grounds have toilets. Camping is common sense, and those muppets that abuse and take advantage of this fair green country should be given a courteous stay at one of our fine correctional facilities to educate them. It amazes me how ignorant and ablivious tourists are, its just soooo convenient that "Owh, we didn't know" Litter is litter, and accountability and justice should be laid. Vigilanties like Batman and Robin should intervene.....