Freedom camping hotspots see spike in fines this summer

Infringements climbed across the Waikato, Thames‑Coromandel and Queenstown Lakes districts this summer.

More than 2000 fines for unlawful freedom camping have been dished out across key holiday hotspots this summer.

Data released to Newstalk ZB shows infringements between December and February climbed across the Waikato, Thames‑Coromandel and Queenstown Lakes districts, with all three recording increases on last summer. Meanwhile, none were issued in the Far North.

Fines across the councils range from $200 to $800.

The Queenstown Lakes District Council issued the largest share of infringements, handing out 1512 fines under its new responsible camping bylaw, up sharply from 345 the year before.

The bylaw, introduced in December, restricts self‑contained vehicles to 141 designated spaces across 15 sites. A handful of rural roadside areas are also available.

The council’s Responsible Camping Programme Manager, Amy Galloway, said it had been a bumper summer, with sites full most nights.

“The spike reflects several things: the new rules, visitor numbers returning to pre‑Covid levels, and the growing popularity of freedom camping.

“Infringements are a strong motivator for compliance, and numbers will probably fall as winter approaches,” Galloway said.

The Thames‑Coromandel District Council issued 379 infringements this summer, compared to 319 last year.

The Thames-Coromandel District Council's bylaw came into effect in 2022, prohibiting freedom camping from certain areas.

But the district is also dealing with a large backlog of unpaid fines.

Data shows 743 infringements issued between December 2022 and March this year remain outstanding.

Just over 500 of those are now more than a year old, with the amount left unpaid from these totalling at least $100,000.

The council said unpaid fines were pursued and eventually filed with the Ministry of Justice for enforcement.

In the Waikato District, 203 fines were issued over summer, all of them in Raglan. That’s a slight rise from 191 in the district the previous year.

The council tightened its bylaw late last year, banning freedom camping on Raglan’s James St after ongoing issues with antisocial behaviour and overcrowding.

The Waikato District Council’s acting customer services manager, Imelda Bolton, said Raglan’s popularity brought waves of visitors, which sometimes led to parking problems, litter and abandoned vehicles.

“The goal is to manage behaviour so camping can continue responsibly, in the right places.”

In contrast, another popular holiday spot, the Far North, saw no fines over summer.

The Far North District Council said its approach focuses on educating campers about the rules, which in most cases achieves compliance.

The council said infringement notices remained an option for repeated or serious non-compliance, but this hadn’t been necessary to date.

Meanwhile, the New Zealand Motorhome and Caravan Association isn’t surprised by the rising number of fines across Queenstown-Lakes, Thames-Coromandel and Waikato.

National property and policy manager James Imlach said the issues were “mostly self‑inflicted”, despite councils providing designated sites.

He said many of the sites were poorly located or couldn’t accommodate the number of travellers now on the road.

“Demand for freedom camping has risen a lot, while the supply of suitable sites where people can camp responsibly has shrunk," Imlach said.

“Most campers are trying to follow the rules, but are being caught out by [the] council’s increasingly hard-line enforcement.”

Kate Rickard is an Auckland-based multimedia journalist for Newstalk ZB covering tourism, immigration, and general news. She previously studied journalism at AUT before joining ZB full-time in April 2025.