Under the council's new Freedom Camping bylaw, parking on Marine Park reserve is restricted to a maximum of six mobile homes overnight in summer and 10 in winter, with a maximum stay of two consecutive nights per calender month.
Other areas, such as Sulphur Point, limit the number of freedom campers to three.
The camper must display a self-contained certification warrant.
The retired couple said illegal freedom campers tended to give certified legal campers "a bad name".
Graeme said while they knew other campers were illegally parking up, it was difficult to challenge people without getting into a confrontation.
He said there were two signs in close proximity to each other which had conflicting restrictions on the number of campers allowed at the reserve.
The council's environment compliance manager, John Payne, said the sign posted at the entry to Marine Park was the old sign which would be replaced shortly and council's enforcement officer would be revisiting the site to check that campers were strictly complying with the bylaw.
Mr Payne said he was unaware of any recent complaints since the new Freedom Camping bylaw came into force.
Regular monitoring of the city's 27 freedom camping sites took place up to three times a week and most campers were relatively compliant, he said.
Mr Payne said the council was not taking a hardline approach to the problem but anyone found flouting the rules could be issued a $200 infringement notice or prosecuted.
Freedom camping rules came under the spotlight late last year after a group of Marine Parade residents successfully campaigned for a year-round ban on parking along the eastern end of the beach-front road.
New Zealand Motor Caravan Association general manager Bruce Lochore said while there had been no legal challenge to the council's decision, that did not mean it would be the end of the matter.
"We wanted to give the new council some breathing space and now we have done that, we will certainly be approaching the council again to discuss the matter further ... We believe the [total ban] decision is very much challengeable," he said.