Freedom camping sites in Christchurch to close

tourists short of money shoplifting http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/78548189/german-shoplifters-hide-food-in-pants-at-pak-n-save

These gap year tourists come from well-resourced families.

Aussie backpacker tax to drive tourists to NZ http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11633657

problems in wellington http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/travel-troubles/80022566/wellington-south-coast-dunes-turned-into-ad-hoc-freedom-camper-toilets

I knew about the Red Rocks situation which was stupidity on the campers part. 2 perfectly good toilets but still everyone just goes in the carpark. Ok 20 campers is a little much for 2 loos cleaned daily and they are not the pristine examples they could be but even so they are still nearly always usable (amongst the puddles of poor aim) I wasnt aware of an issue at Island bay but it wouldnt be hard to make those toilets 24 hour. However they were put there for the kids playground so would be the best idea?

This one hasn't been mentioned yet: http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/news/79969021/marlborough-groups-eager-to-hear-about-governments-freedom-camping-fund There's apparently a centrally-funded $12m fund (over 4 years) on the way to help smaller regions provide infrastructure. Is that a lot?

depends how many towns it gets split up amongst, new toilets arent cheap. twizel is spending $400k on new ones. sounds like theres a big national demand for more and better toilets... its probably going to take an ongoing injection of more money to adequately address the problem, theres no sign of tourism slowing down. thres talk of more airlines starting services to NZ, increased flights from China. Theres going to be a massive demand for infrastructure upgrade. on Mt eden theres two toilets at the bottom to service thousands of people who visit it every day, they are there for longer now as they all have to walk to the top now. Auckland doesn't qualify for the govt money , but its just an example of whats going on all over the country. scenic locations the tourists are visiting that have never had such a high no of visitors before.

The freedom camping by-law in Marlborough has been a pretty big failure, it created many more problems then it fixed. Historically campers spread out across dozens if not hundreds of spots, and their impact in most cases was minimal. (There was a few gypsy types who set up semi permanent camps and left a mess, plus long term workers staying in one place for months on end. But the typical recreational freedom camping cause minimal problems) The council ignoring common sense and feedback decided to force them all into a few small areas. A lot of people in a small area creates all sorts of problems, even if the group as a whole is well behaved. I feel sorry for the residents who live near the council organised camping concentration camps. Marlborough District Council is not a poor council, they can afford to splurge millions on monuments to the councils own stupidity. They have the rating base to afford to provide better infrastructure. Our property alone contributes over $20,000 a year in rates and we are only a small size vineyard. It is also pretty hypocritical how the Chairperson for the Picton Smart and Connected community group stated that "Picton has a large retired population who could not afford to pay for the wear and tear on facilities such as public toilets", But she completely ignores the fact that retired people are one of the largest groups of freedom campers. There are thousands, if not tens of thousands of grey nomads driving around the country, many of them are not rich people. They are elderly, they are retired and freedom camping allows them to travel and relax a little after a lifetime or paying rates and taxes. Not everyone is wealthy enough to go on overseas vacations, stay in increasingly expensive motels and camp grounds or even spurge $50,000+ on a self contained road maggot.

What ever happened to a hand dug 2 meter deep hole with a frame and seat made of flooring grade chipboard with a hole chainsawn in it. Twisel could have 200 loos for that money

I made a toilet like that just last week, would have change out of $500, and that includes my time.