Freedom campers leave mark

BY JO GILBERT

The number of people freedom camping in Marlborough has exploded, with campers frequently leaving rubbish and toilet waste in laybys and recreation areas.

Marlborough District Council rangers logged just 31 occurrences of freedom camping in the region in 2005. Last year, 432 instances were documented, up more than a third on 2008's 319.

Rubbish, human effluent and other messes were often left in public spots where people had parked their campervans for the night, council reserves and amenities officer Rosie Bartlett said. The activity has been a growing concern in both Marlborough and Kaikoura for several years.

Under council regulations, freedom campers must be self-contained with three-day-capacity toilets. They can stay for only two nights in one spot in a single calendar month.

Those that are not self-contained must use camping grounds.

With the practice and its environmental impact growing each summer, Mrs Bartlett said the council launched an awareness campaign just before Christmas aimed at campervan travellers.

The drive was based on a campaign started in December 2008 by the Tourism Industry Association's New Zealand Freedom Camping Forum. Its slogan is: "Assume nothing. Always ask a local."

It encouraged freedom campers to visit the province's i-SITE Visitor Centres and Department of Conservation stations to learn where camping was allowed and get information about toileting and rubbish facilities, Mrs Bartlett said.

"This is not about turning them away; this is about encouraging them to be respectful of the environment," she said.

Every night, council rangers were out moving people on from parks and reserves and distributing information.

As rangers could not be everywhere, the public needed to let the council or DOC know when they saw freedom campers, she said.

DOC Sounds area manager Roy Grose said his station had not yet received any freedom-camping complaints this summer.

However, he said the designated freedom-camping area in Koromiko was being well patronised. The activity needed addressing on a bigger scale, at a government or council level, he said. "It creates a fair bit of discussion in the community about why people are freeloading on the side of the road and leaving their s... and rubbish behind."

Kaikoura District Council parking and slipway officer Ian "Woody" Woodward said campervans that did not have toilets on board were "the problem ones".

He had noticed an increase in people sleeping in cars this summer.

Many of those sleeping in cars seemed to be New Zealanders, whereas those in campervans were more likely to be international visitors, he said.

- The Marlborough Express