Residents fed up with polluting campers

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Wed, 21 Apr 2010 6:03p.m.

Wanaka residents are becoming increasingly fed up with freedom campers dumping their waste at tourist spots

Wanaka residents are becoming increasingly fed up with freedom campers dumping their waste at tourist spots

By Annabelle Jackman

Freedom camping is a cheap and often popular way to see the country, but some campers who flout the rules may be ruining it for everyone.

Residents in Wanaka are particularly fed up. Locals have now blocked the access road to a popular spot next to the Cardrona River, because of all the rubbish and human waste campers leave behind.

Resentment against the toilet-less vans is also spreading the country. In Golden Bay, locals have threatened to set their dogs on freedom campers.

Rental companies acknowledge they've got a problem, and have launched websites advising freedom campers to use public toilets or stay in camping grounds.

However, that doesn't seem to be having an effect and problems seem to be getting worse.

And while the tourism industry has so far preferred persuasion to prosecution, it admits it's running out of options.

"We'll be looking at enforcement and how that can be carried out in a better way across the country," says Geoff Ensor from the Tourism Industry Association. "I'm sure infrastructure will also be looked at."

However, some locals on the tourist trail say they won't be satisfied until there's a complete ban on the renting of toilet-less campervans.

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Comments

22 Apr 2010 06:09p.m.

Ricardo wrote:

Campers should be registered as such and have toilet facilities. End of story. Too many junky Previas and Hiaces with no facilities on our roads.

22 Apr 2010 02:41p.m.

Judy wrote:

Hi Jan - That is a good idea. In the meantime any uncertified campervan must be required to be parked overnight in a camping ground run as a business OR in a camping area with adequate toilet facilities for the number of occupants that area provides.Obviously, most if not all ,of these ones would be D.O.C. camping areas. The certified campervans carry a large green sticker on the rear window so this would not be too hard to police.A lot of problems only become very difficult ones when we don't have the get up and go to resolve them promptly. Something has to be very much in place before next year's Rugby World Cup and the influx of campervans that will bring about.

THE GOVT. MUST MOVE QUICKLY--NO EXCUSES.

22 Apr 2010 01:39p.m.

Kate wrote:

Are the freedom campers really any worse than people who leave their little bags of dog waste on footpaths, in gutters and on our forest walkways ? They go to the trouble of picking it up then leave the bag so in my book freedom campers and dog owners are one and the same and need to be treated accordingly.

22 Apr 2010 06:40a.m.

Jan.. wrote:

The Tourist Campers must keep New Zealand Country clean at all times or spend a month in prison, the Goverment should build more plublic facilities for the Campers with an extra charge on the tourist Camper Van Hire to help pay for the loan to build plublic facilities..