Freedom camping sites in Christchurch to close

@izogi you're making this an interogation.. I dont have time for that.. and i've no inclination to engage in one. I didnt create the problem and i'm not going to be interogated over the options You asked, I floated some ideas.. yeah they arent perfect, i dont have all year to investigate the ins and outs. its like i'm being set up, you ask me to offer answers then proceed to troll me and rip me to bits.... i'm not an expert, i'm thinking aloud, dont expect anyone to answer your questions if you treat people like this

"Like I've said, I have no problem with the Govt spending money to set up places all across the country where low-budget tourists can park/camp at for $5/$10 a night that have facilities and rubbish bins." Nice idea Unless its subsidized it wont fly though. Property prices in places people want to go are too high to make this profitable. The council campground in Taupo was charging $50 a couple to put up a tent and it was chocker all summer but the council got a better offer from a land developer. "ban freedom camping vehicles?" The same vans most often seen in freedom camping hate articles are the same ones regularly in motor camps. How do you ban a class of vehicle just because a few of them are sometimes used in a way that is antisocial. Car of choice for boy racers is Subaru WRX maybe 10% in the hands of boy racers do we ban the other 90% as well We cant solve this issue despite having the will to do so.

possibly look at banning vehicles with beds in them. and no toilets in them, i'm just thinking aloud because i was asked on the spot what my answer would be,

Here I am looking at buying a small van I can put a mattress on top of the seats in. Very little intention of using anywhere without facilities though. Even if I did a portapoti doesnt take up much room. Just as a side question Is there camping facilities all the way along the Teararoa Trail and the cycle route?

I think the reality is that we shouldnt be looking at banning freedom camping per say but we should be looking at ways to make them behave suitably. Decent penalties for indiscretions and a practical way to enforce them always comes to mind. Thats always the hard part especially as fines are so often imposed on people who ignore them as they are leaving the country in a week or 2 anyway. Cant stop them at the border without a court issued warrant which is never going to happen. Levy fines against the rental company. Let them chase the money. Often they have a credit card number and authority to collect fines from that card. Still the issue of issuing those fines though.

A great start would be in talking witht the producers of the lonely planet guide books to write a big spiel about how hard we crack down on the behaviour of freedom campers. The govt needs to front up and accept more needs to be spent on doc and there needs to be dedicated freedom campsite agents that travel the hotspot areas checking all campers for tickets and emptying long drops etc. Yes this will be labour intensive and costly but it's what we need to do. Perhaps building better sanitation systems at major hot spots. You can't stop someone putting a mattress in the back of a van but we can regulate and set rules up to get the rental companies to run the way we want them to.

""The most comfortable way to camp in Hanmer Springs is in one of our amazing camping grounds - you'll have kitchens, bathrooms, laundrys and other facilities at your disposal. Freedom camping (staying overnight out of campgrounds) is only permitted in vehicles which are certified as self-contained. These are outlined in the Hurunui District Council Freedom Camping Bylaw. Breaches of the bylaw can incur a fine up to $20,000.00"" http://visithanmersprings.co.nz/accommodation/freedom-camping http://www.campermate.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/IMG_5339-1024x683.jpg

Rough Guides give more warts and all info about the ins and outs of a country and what the issues are..

That's not really my point wayno. My point is that they need to be informed before they get here in as many major avenues as possible. Everywhere I've travelled overseas on the Trekkers trail, there's lonely planet. People that shit in our bushes most probably have one in their converted graffiti covered mpv.

Sorry, @waynowski. No interrogation intended. But a lot of what I've seen in this thread is statements of "someone else should solve the problem" combined with "but... They shouldn't do that and they're stupid!", without acknowledging that in practice, I think, it's a much more difficult problem to solve. If you don't care to discuss your suggestions then that's fine, but that's not going to stop me having questions. I'm trying to suggest ideas, too. I don't know if they'll work, but if someone can clearly explain to me why a (possibly subsidised) programme of supermarkets and petrol stations acting as rubbish collection points would not be effective in reducing rubbish left in other places, I'll take it on board. Scoffing doesn't count as an explanation. The specific reason I suggested this one is that these are businesses which typically already have contact with the infrastructure required to handle rubbish, potentially significant amounts, and they're also the types of places which most visitors probably already visit fairly frequently on their existing journeys. Would it have an effect out of the box? Probably not. Would it have an effect if combined with a proper campaign involving rental companies for advising dropoff points and having facilities in vehicles to contain rubbish tidily until dropoff? Maybe. If someone's stance is that it might work but that neither local nor central government should pay anything for it, then fine. That contradicts my own view (depending on cost and effectiveness) but personally I'm more interested in understanding the real causes of the problem and if it would actually be effective.