Choice of camp site insults local Maori

The issue of freedom camping is still high on the agenda and has always been a hotly debated topic around Kaikoura, but now the travelling mess makers have taken to a sacred site to leave their mark.

First it was the car park at the end of town and Jimmy Armers Beach. Then they favoured the lookout, probably for a better morning vista.

But the final straw has come for Te Runanga O Kaikoura as Nga Niho Pa on Scarborough St becomes the latest preferred spot to set up camp.

Maurice Manawatu, owner of Maori Tours Kaikoura which visits the site daily to begin the cultural tour, says he had been aware of the camping issue there 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 previously, but last week he and tour guide Tania took a group up there 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, or fortified village, holds important cultural significance for local 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, this seems to have had little effect at Jimmy Armers, where campers are spotted almost daily parked up right next to the signs.
The matter has recently made national news with president of the New Zealand Motor Caravan Association (NZMCA) Dick Waters suggesting tourists in "whiz-bang" backpackers' sleeper or rental vans should be banned and drivers should be "shot".

Following growing concerns about the impacts of freedom camping in several parts of the country, the Tourism Industry Association (TIA) convened the New Zealand Freedom Camping Forum (NZFCF) in December 2007.

The NZFCF has since succeeded in achieving a unified stance on how best to manage freedom camping. The forum has set up a Camping Our Way website, www.camping.org.nz, on which 14 of the 73 local authorities nationwide have posted their policies.

Kaikoura is one of these, advising campers to use designated public spaces, camping areas or camping grounds. It also suggests travellers visit the i-site, council or other camping guides if unsure of sites in the area.

But one German tourist the Kaikoura Star spoke to on Monday, who had been sleeping in his car at the pa, suggested facilities on Scarborough St needed to be "improved" to stop people like him 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 checked online to check where he could sleep.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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