Tramping illegal

""Police have already started handing out tickets for people ignoring the rules. This morning police - who have been monitoring surf cameras to detect rule-breakers - turned up at Piha Beach, where about six people were in the water. "They just went straight down to the beach and called the surfers in," said a Herald photographer at the scene. "Then they gave them tickets. Another guy was just drying down in the carpark and he got a ticket too.""" https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12322620 I don't think they were handing out scratchies or meat raffles.

thats a nasty piece of coastline with a lot of nasty rips, more than a few people have drowned, some have just disappeared without trace....

There were other surfers at other beaches called-in too. Police were monitoring webcams (surf-cams ?) & handed out tickets.

I'm not a lawyer, but my understanding is that the Health Act Order published by the Director General of Health on Friday 3 April: https://covid19.govt.nz/assets/resources/Legislation-and-key-documents/COVID-19-Section-701f-Notice-to-all-persons-in-New-Zealand-3-April-2020-v2.PDF has legal effect and plenty of teeth to it. There's a charge of "Obstructing a Medical Officer of Health or people assisting medical officer of health" that can be brought against anyone not following any of the rules published in the above Health Act Order. Penalties are fines up to $4000 or 6 months jail. Up until 6 pm on Friday, I don't think the rules they had announced had much in the way of teeth to them, and the police knew it, but they have since fixed that with the Health Act Order. http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1956/0065/latest/whole.html#DLM307213 Section 70(1)f "require persons, places, buildings, ships, vehicles, aircraft, animals, or things to be isolated, quarantined, or disinfected as he thinks fit" gives him / police the power to enforce the above notice. Penalties are specified in section 72 below: "72 Offences relating to obstructing medical officer of health or people assisting medical officer of health A person commits an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months, a fine not exceeding $4,000, or both who in any way (directly or indirectly, by act or default)—"

A question is, am I allowed to go fishing with my son? The wording of the Health Act Order allows going outside for exercise, recreation if: >it does not involve swimming, water based activities (for example, surfing or boating), hunting, tramping, or other activities of a kind that expose participants to danger or may require search and rescue services. My reading of that is it's OK to go fishing as long as it's a local easy walk from my home, I follow distancing requirements, and it's safe - I'm standing on the shore casting and not going in the water or in a boat at all. Yesterday, it was funny to see the local harbourmaster (who's a big guy and well into his 70's) roaring around on his jet ski with his blue light flashing, first around the Frankton Arm then through the rapids under the Kawarau Falls bridge and down to the Shotover confluence and back in order to try and catch anyone who might be taking the excessive risk of going for a paddle or fishing.

@Ian_H: > Penalties are specified in section 72 Thanks. That answers my earlier question about penalties. Section 72 also prescribes up to 6 months' jail or a $4000 fine for anyone who does anything forbidden under section 70, which includes 70(1)(f). That's a considerably bigger (possible) penalty than the $500 plus $50 per day.

@Ian_H , Marty Black is a law unto himself so no doubt he will have a "good" reason for tootling around looking important at this time.

Ian,surely fishing is a water based activity? If you or your son fall into said river or lake you could need rescuing.pretty easy to follow the advice of officials at this time...stay home/local Try a walk instead,the fish can wait

Yeah but if you are taking a walk and you stub a toe on the cement path, you might be bleeding. You could need a rescue. You better just stay at home and order for delivery a whole lot of cotton wool to wrap yourself in. The only reason i haven't fallen into the water whenever i have gone fishing is because i wear my harness and tie onto a tree.

@Ian_H - ""However, this afternoon, police told the Herald most beachgoers were sticking to the strict lockdown laws put in place by the Government. "Most people were in small groups sticking to their bubble and people in the water only appeared to be knee-high," police said in a statement."" https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/4zi7Shu2smLBaOeIXhUORawrC7Y=/620x376/smart/filters:quality(70)/arc-anglerfish-syd-prod-nzme.s3.amazonaws.com/public/QBHS4FF57NCV5LA3UITDGM2XSU.jpg ""Pāpāmoa Beach, Tauranga, at 3.30pm on Good Friday. Photo / Supplied"" If this picture doesn't load, try clicking on it.