‘There ain’t no toilet in there’
Freedom campers faking stickers to access special sites. Hamish McNeilly reports.
A dusty and battered Toyota Emina is parked in an isolated area of the picturesque Otago Peninsula. Inside is a large cooking pot between the driver and the passenger, and clothes piled on a mattress in the back.
But it is a sticker on the rear of the suburban people mover turned backpacker van, which has raised the ire of Dunedin tour operator Bex Hill.
‘‘There ain’t no toilet in there,’’ Hill, who took pictures of the vehicle displaying a sticker saying ‘‘self-contained’’, said.
That sticker effectively meant the people travelling in the vehicle could access designated camping sites without a toilet, annoying Hill, who paid for her own sticker as a member of the New Zealand Caravan Association.
‘‘We are aware that people are able to buy those stickers and put them on their vehicles, and pass them off as self-contained,’’ the association’s policy manager, James Imlach, said.
The issue had been on-going and the association had regularly reminded council enforcement officers to check for certification, not just stickers, as they could be faked.
Vehicles issued with the sticker meant it was a certified self-contained vehicle which met the ablutionary and sanitary needs of the occupants for a minimum of three days, without requiring any external services or discharging waste.
Fake stickers on non-certified vehicles were ‘‘confusing the issue of self-containment’’, Imlach said.
A search of vehicles listed for sale on backpackerboard.co.nz showed some listed as ‘‘selfcontained’’ but few having the required toilet – either fixed or portable – or the necessary fresh and grey water storage tanks.
That confusion over the selfcontained standard was being looked at by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), which established the Responsible Camping Working Group last year.
Richard Davies, tourism policy manager, said the group had identified that the existing administration over the selfcontained standard ‘‘wasn’t working well’’.
‘‘MBIE is leading discussions with other government agencies to improve the administration and oversight of the standard, so it is clearer to comply with and enforce.’’
At present any registered plumber could issue a certification to any vehicle that met the standard, with the certificate to be stored inside the vehicle.
But Dunedin City Council group manager parks and recreation, Robert West, said even certificates could be faked.
Steve Hanrahan of the Tourism Industry Association said the blue stickers did not ‘‘hold any legislative authority’’ and, although some were deliberately cheating the system, many owners may be oblivious to the meaning of the stickers as vehicles could be sold many times over a summer.
‘‘Certainly from a sense of fair play, it wouldn’t resonate well with New Zealanders.’’