Pa's use as toilet the 'last straw'

BY EMMA DANGERFIELD

Freedom campers have desecrated a pa site in Kaikoura with human waste.

The use of Nga Niho Pa on Scarborough St as a toilet by freedom campers may be the last straw for residents, who are fed up with the campers in their town.

Te Runanga O Kaikoura member Maurice Manawatu of Maori Tours Kaikoura visits the site daily as the starting point of a cultural tour.

Mr Manawatu says he had been aware of the freedom-camping issue, but until recently had not experienced too much disturbance at the site.

He had found the odd beer bottle top and other bits of litter, but last week he took a group to the site and found the ultimate evidence of the freedom camping – human excrement and toilet paper.

And not only could he see it, Mr Manawatu says he could smell it too.

"I am fuming," he says. "The whanau is really upset too. It's just desecration of land that was gifted to the community and it's not on."

The pa holds important cultural significance for Maori and is a place where many visitors go to understand the area's native history, with its fortified walls, now raised mounds of grass, telling the story of how the area was once protected.

Mr Manawatu says the runanga will be forced to erect its own "no camping" signs in the hope that this will curb the behaviour.

However, the erection of signs seems to have had little effect at other freedom camping hot spots, where campers are seen almost daily parked right next to the signs.

Kaikoura has joined a national website, advising campers where to stop, including designated public spaces, camping areas or camping grounds.

It also suggests travellers visit the i-Site visitors' centre, council or other camping guides if unsure of camping sites in the area.

But one German tourist spoken to on Monday who had been sleeping in his car at the pa, suggested facilities in Scarborough St needed to be "improved" to prevent people such as him from using the bushes as toilets.

The man, who declined to be named, said he had camped at the pa because there was no sign telling him not to.

He had not approached the i-Site or looked online to check where he could sleep.

- The Marlborough Express