Angry West Coast residents blockade bridge leading to overcrowded freedom camping site
Saturday, 16 February 2019
Frustrated West Coast residents fed up with tourists crowding their small camping ground have taken matters into their own hands by blocking the bridge to the site and turning away dozens of vehicles a night.
Peter Salter, who has lived in Kakapotahi, 45kms southwest of Hokitika, for about 40 years, said residents were angry with the lack of policing of the site and since Monday night have taken on the job themselves. 'Enough is enough,' he said.
Standing in front of the Squatters Creek bridge which leads to the site, wearing a hi-vis vest and carrying a stop sign, Salter was one of a dozen mostly older self-appointed guardians of the campsite.
Salter said for a long time residents of Kakapotahi had been hidden away from the rest of the world but in the past few weeks 'the rest of the world is catching up with us'.
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* The freedom camper who wants to ban freedom camping**
Stats NZ said visitor numbers to the country reached an all time high in December with 529,300 visitors arriving on our shores. There were also a total of 3.86 million visitor arrivals between January and December 2018.
More than 110,000 of those visitors were freedom campers, mainly from Australia and Europe, who tended to stay longer, spend more money and get to less touristy areas of New Zealand than other overseas visitors.
But the volume and 'pitch up and park anywhere for the night' approach has led to tensions with local residents.
Tourism minister Kelvin Davis said Kiwis and overseas visitors both had a 'collective duty to care for our country'.
He said New Zealand was a long way from being at risk of 'over-tourism' and needing to limit visitor numbers.
'While most campers are respectful, some communities needed assistance to help people camp responsibly, and that's why the government set aside $8.5 million to fund infrastructure, education and enforcement projects across New Zealand this summer.'
The council-run ground at Kakapotahi was a relatively unknown, quiet, off-road, area with few visitors, until earlier this year when the Westland District Council set up a freedom camping site there, with toilets and rubbish facilities, using money funded for it through the Government Tourism Infrastructure Fund (TIF).
Since then the site, which is now being advertised by the council through smartphone apps, has as many as 50 campers arriving each night, despite only 15 vehicles being allowed on the site at any one time.
He'd had enough of overcrowding at the campsite, as well as the fact many of the tourists were then driving onto the beach beyond the site. He called residents for a meeting last Monday night.
'While a lot of us wanted the campsite to be closed down there were others that didn't want to. So we compromised and agreed we would monitor the site and block off access after 15 campers were through.'
Salter's wife painted signs to put up at the entrance to the site and residents began taken shifts blocking the bridge through the day and into the night.
'Once 15 campers are there we turn the others away.'
The response has been mostly positive but one tourist had been caught trying to remove one of the signs, he said.
'It's about taking control of our area.
'How long we can keep doing it for though is another thing.'
Westland District Mayor Bruce Smith said he appreciated the assistance of the town's residents in policing the area.
Smith said the council had employed two staff for freedom camping compliance, which were funded by central government.
Employed for six months, they will patrol the wider Hokitika/Kumara area, Fox Glacier and South Westland.
He said the council had consulted with communities before the Kakapotahi, and three other camping sites were set up about four weeks ago.
'We asked anyone with an issue to make submissions, and there was no site that didn't have public support.'
The council called an extraordinary meeting last Thursday to hear from accommodation providers how they had been affected by the freedom camping sites. Following on from that, staff have been asked to investigate limiting freedom camping to self-contained vehicles only and to report back on February 28. They were also asked to investigate providing signs at the camping sites encouraging campers to stay at local accommodation providers.
Smith said Kakapotahi residents were not being unreasonable in their policing of the site.
He said the area was vast and in the past freedom campers had parked up on side roads and beaches.
The new sites meant they had somewhere to stop with toilet and rubbish facilities.
'I'M FREE TO DO WHAT I WANT'
Incidents between freedom campers and locals are relatively rare, but do appear to be increasing.
A few recent ones include:
- In 2018, locals demanded that freedom camping be banned along Kaikoura's popular surf breaks.
- Groups of residents fed up with pooing freedom campers in Taranaki asked visitors to leave in 2016.
- In 2015, Petone locals made headlines after being appalled at the 'unsavoury mess' left by freedom campers.
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