App to aid camping services

THE Waitaki District Council will use information provided by the app CamperMate to guide patrols, signage and information distribution, documents show.

The council’s heritage, environment, and regulatory group activity report this month shows in November and December 2018 Oamaru, Kakanui, Omarama, Ohau, and Duntroon were freedom camping hot spots in the district among the app’s users.

In Oamaru, 2125 app users spent the night over the two months.

Kakanui was the secondmost popular stop in November.

Ohau and Omarama rose to be the secondmost popular stops in December.

In both months, more than threequarters of freedom campers using the app entered the Waitaki district on State Highway 8, from the Mackenzie and Central Otago districts.

The council recently updated its freedom camping information brochures.

Some of its ‘‘wordy’’ English information had been replaced with a more ‘‘pictorial’’ approach.