Campfires

Outside of national parks(and Scenic reserves?) camp fires are permitted, unless a Restricted or Closed Fire Season has been declared. I prefer to cook on fires, in huts. Not that necessary when camping, except for warmth. Lighting a fire is one thing, keeping it going for cooking is another. I meet a lot of hunters and trampers who don't know how to, when to come to a hut with Open Fire in it. And firewood they try to replace, is often rubbish and burns poorly. The wood burners are far more efficient, heating and fuel consumption wise. But for cooking, I used an open fire when living in the hills, and still prefer it. Many of the old 6 bunk and 4 bunk Forest Service huts have had open fires replaced with wood burners. which is understandable where wood is scarce. But it has resulted in very few of these huts still be truly representative of these historic huts from the deer culling era. (bit of a hobby horse for me :)) But, the Restriction on fires like Kaweka forest park are there for a reason. I doubt the West Coast has had a fire restriction in the mountains. In times of high fire danger, fires can spread very easily. Start a wild fire and you will be in for a massive bill from DOC

"Outside of national parks(and Scenic reserves?) camp fires are permitted, unless a Restricted or Closed Fire Season has been declared. " I've seen this quoted around places in one form or another. I'll happily accept it but am still curious about the legal grounds which are used to restrict campfires in National Parks. Is each fire authority declaring fires illegal specifically because of the National Park status, even if there's lower fire danger than a Conservation Park somewhere else where fires haven't yet been prohibited? Or is it DOC declaring that fires cause unacceptable damage, even to dead wood, and so create a non-natural state for a park that's meant to be kept in a natural state?

@Kreig: I only encountered this scenario of not allowing a fire on the one occasion with those particular senior instructors, thank goodness. I got the impression that the fires were the highlight of the weekend for most of the students. One time we had a fire going in the rain on a DOE weekend and a girl used her spray deodorant to help get it going. That might have been a bit dodgy but I learned something! The kids absolutely loved having the fire.

Ah yeah.... Aerosols and fire mix a little too well.... :D But absolutely right. Ask any kid the highlight of being in the outdoors, and I reckon the vast majority of them will say fire. (Camp fire, lighting fires, learning about fire etc).