BOG STANDARD
Tough toilet laws force freedom campers to make expensive changes to their vehicles
VanLab has sold hundreds of campervan conversion kits since launching 18 months ago, but company owner Andy Jones is a worried man.
Changes to freedom camping regulations could throw a spanner in the works for his business, rental fleets, and thousands of campervan, caravan and motorhome owners facing the possibility of costly upgrades to ensure their vehicles are classed as self-contained.
Jones, an aeronautical engineer and former McLaren supercar designer, uses 3D scanning technology to create custommade conversion kits that slot together like a giant jigsaw, and he says moveable portable toilets make the best use of available space.
Toilet standards are among issues covered in a Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) discussion document on future management of freedom camping, and Jones is far from alone in his concerns about the possibility of portable toilets being vetoed in certified self-contained vehicles.
MBIE’s public consultation closes on May 16, and it has so far received more than 3500 submissions, with 300-plus people attending public meetings at more than a dozen freedom camping hot-spots burdened by human waste, litter and overcrowding.
Analysis of that feedback will go to Tourism Minister Stuart Nash, who wants a new regime in place by next January, and has been vocal about his desire for stricter rules to prevent campers toileting inappropriately in the bush and on roadsides.
In a report on sustainable tourism released in February, Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Simon Upton suggested that selfcontained vehicles should have a permanently plumbed toilet and, ideally, separate tanks for black and grey water.
This ‘‘gold standard’’ is seen by some in the campervan community as completely over the top, and they warn that conversions would take some vehicles over their legal weight limit.
Nor is there any guarantee that campers will actually use more sophisticated enclosed facilities because many assiduously avoid using onboard loos of any sort, especially for ‘‘number twos’’.
‘‘I have seen people with really flash motorhomes that go around the back and wee in the bushes . . .I don’t know why. Even if people have facilities, education is important,’’ says Jones.
Tellingly, research done just before the Covid-19 pandemic struck found that only 28 per cent of international freedom campers who bought or hired a budget vehicle with a toilet actually used it, compared with 74 per cent of those who rented a ‘‘premium’’ self-contained vehicle.
The Freedom Camping Act was introduced ahead of the 2011 Rugby World Cup to cope with the hordes of fans expected to follow the event in campervans and motorhomes.
The act does not require the use of vehicles with toilets unless specified by local authority bylaws, and to date only 33 out of 67 councils have bylaws giving some teeth to the voluntary standard for self-contained vehicles.
The standard lists six different types of acceptable toilets – composting and marine loos, portable toilets, fixed cassette types with removable holding tanks, ‘‘efficiency’’ ones flushed with a small volume of water, and toilets permanently fixed inside the vehicle.
Toilets must all be accessible when the bed is made up. Vehicles also need a sink connected to a watertight sealed wastewater tank, and enough water and waste capacity to last for three days.
Over the past three years the Government has spent $27 million on council facilities and programmes to manage freedom camping which preCovid had exploded to 245,000 campers a year (63 per cent of them international visitors).
MBIE estimates there are at least 68,000 certified self-contained vehicles, with a further 55,000 cars that could readily be converted into campers.
One proposal under consideration would have freedom camping in vehicles limited to those that are certified selfcontained, another would allow un-selfcontained vehicles at sites with toilets.
But it’s the proposal to change the selfcontainment rules that is sparking debate.
MBIE tourism policy manager Danielle McKenzie says the discussion document has not made any recommendations on the types of toilets covered by any new regulations.
‘‘We’re just seeking views from the public about what should or should not be included in a vehicle if we want to regulate to tighten the standard.’’
Andrew Panckhurst attended the MBIE public meeting in Christchurch to express his outrage at the idea of being unable to freedom-camp in ‘‘Mr Upton’’ a van he converted into a camper at a cost of $15,000.
The van has a separate toilet room, and he says a cassette toilet cost $700 compared with $180 for a perfectly adequate portable toilet.
MBIE research indicates it costs about $500 to $800 to install a portable toilet with small fresh and wastewater containers, plumbing and certification.
A cassette toilet conversion with associated waste and water facilities was budgeted at $1200 to $5000, with higherend private facilities and larger waste tanks from $5000 to $30,000.
The Motor Caravan Association has more than 70,000 members and Neil Stewart is the organisation’s most senior vehicle certifier.
Modifications to his caravan to create a toilet room in what had been a wardrobe cost about $2000, and he did most of the work himself.
He says out of 49,000 vehicles registered with the association, only 3500 have a permanently plumbed toilet, and separate tanks for black and grey water.
Any move to make that the standard for freedom camping would therefore knock out 80 per cent of members, and about 90 per cent of larger rental campervans, many of which have cassette toilets emptied via a hatch in the side of the vehicle.
Stewart says the extra weight of installing tanks has implications for road user charges and insurance rates.
‘‘I think the [tourism] minister has said ‘this is what I want’ and he hasn’t really thought about the consequences.’’
Waka Kotahi/NZ Transport Agency website says the total weight capacity of some motorhomes is set close to their unloaded weight, and it is important to take that into account to avoid overloading with equipment or liquids, in addition to passengers.
The agency says a toilet and grey water waste tanks will add at least 200 kilograms to the weight of a camper, but the recreational vehicle fleet was generally compliant and police did not perceive it as a great risk.
Peter Mitchell’s B2B RV Services in Christchurch does motorhome repairs and toilet installations and he says some motorhomes and caravans will struggle for space to fit tanks.
He believes the extra weight of tanks will definitely be an issue too, particularly on top of the sort of paraphernalia travellers like to carry, such as e-bikes.
Electronic weigh stations can now readily weigh campervans and motorhomes as they drive past, and Mitchell says he had seen a Facebook post from a motorhome owner who was pulled over and ordered to offload items to get within his legal weight limit.
‘‘I think the [tourism] minister has said ‘this is what I want’ and he hasn’t really thought about the consequences.’’ Neil Stewart Motor Caravan Association certifier
The size of the campervan rental fleet has dropped since the pandemic, but MBIE says New Zealand still has up to 5000 rental
vehicles equipped with sleeping and toilet facilities.
About a third of Jucy’s 600 vehicles are unself-contained smaller vans, and chief operating officer Dan Alpe says the remainder are split between portable toilets and cassette toilets.
Having to convert the entire fleet to cassettes would be a significant but manageable cost.
Spaceships has frequently faced criticism for renting out sleeper vehicles without toilets, and managing director James Rolleston says it is looking at putting facilities in some vehicles.
He says Spaceships actively encourages customers to stay in campgrounds, and the camping app they are supplied with deliberately does not show freedom camping sites without toilets.
Rolleston feels the rental fleet gets unfairly targetted when the real problem was the young travellers who bought their own vehicles, and cruised the country for months at a time.
‘‘They are a completely different customer from ours who are here for 17 days on average. They increasingly want facilities because they have all these gadgets to charge, and they want to be connected.’’
Rolleston says the aim should be to provide appropriate infrastructure for all travellers, including day trippers and cyclists.
‘‘We have all these cycleways being set up, there must be cyclists getting caught short all over the place. Should we tell them to tow a portable toilet tent? Should we ban them?’’
One thing all parties are agreed on is the need for a central national register of certified self-contained vehicles, making it easier to check whether the distinctive blue self-contained stickers were legitimately obtained.
Fines of $200 could be increased to $1000, with confiscation of vehicles for repeat offenders, new penalties for those caught fraudulently claiming to be in selfcontained vehicles, and more onus put on rental companies to collect fines from hirers.
Stewart is all for the register and better oversight of certifiers because he has personally witnessed the sneaky things young tourists will do to obtain a blue sticker.
Suspicious after two sets of travellers turned up with an identical portable toilet, he put his initials on the underside, and the following day a third man arrived with the same toilet seeking certification.
He had heard of international tourists buying a portable toilet, then returning it to the shop two weeks later to get a credit because they had not used it.