Tight rules proposed for campers

A draft freedom camping policy for the Far North is going out for public consultation - with just four spots where freedom camping will be allowed, and even there only in self-contained vehicles.
Concerns about freedom camping - including the mess left by travellers using vans without on-board toilets, and safety worries highlighted by an attack on three young Frenchmen as they slept in a van near Mangamuka last year - have prompted authorities around the country to tighten up on people overnighting outside official campgrounds.
The Far North District Council's response was to ask its three community boards to come up with a list of council reserves where freedom camping would be allowed. The current rules, in theory at least, bar camping on council reserves.
Just one site was nominated in the Bay of Islands-Whangaroa ward (Derrick Landing, Waikare Rd, near Kawakawa), and three in the Te Hiku ward (Lake Waipera and Unahi Reserve, both near Awanui, and Kaimaumau Recreation Reserve, north of Kaitaia).
None was nominated in the Kaikohe-Hokianga ward.
The council proposes allowing self-contained vehicles to stay for one night, and only four vehicles at any one time.
The community boards were also invited to suggest sites with existing public toilets where non-self-contained vans could stay, but none was nominated. The draft policy states they will have to stay overnight in commercial or DoC campgrounds. The council is also producing a brochure spelling out the rules and showing the locations of official campgrounds.
When the council signalled last year it would allow freedom camping in some areas, residents in coastal communities such as Te Ngaere Bay objected fiercely.
"Last time people got a fright," operations manager Sue Hodge said. "They thought they were going to have camping outside their million-dollar homes, but we're not allowing that. These are four quite remote reserves."
The sites suggested were far from commercial campgrounds, many of which paid high rates and should not have to compete against free camping on council reserves.
When Mayor Wayne Brown asked how the new rules would be enforced, Ms Hodge said the same way they were now - by sending staff out if there was a complaint, usually the following morning.
If more enforcement was required councillors would have to dedicate more resources. She expected local people and the Motor Caravan Association would help police the rules. A group at Kaimaumau had offered to monitor freedom campers.
Private landowners who allowed campervans to stay overnight, such as the Waipapakauri Hotel north of Kaitaia, could continue to do so.
Cr Mate Radich worried that the problem of freedom camping in places like Lake Ngatu, Ahipara, would continue even with officially sanctioned free camping areas.
Mr Brown suggested deterring them with warning signs saying: "Thefts occasionally happen here".
The draft policy and list of sites will go out for public consultation.