New Plymouth’s camping clampdown
After months of debate, New Plymouth has clamped down on freedom campers. But pleasing the locals has raised fears we’re alienating our visitors. Christina Persico investigates
The sun is shining at New Plymouth’s picturesque Waiwhakaiho river mouth and the temperature hovers in the early 20s as evening approaches, and with it, more and more vehicles arrive.
There are about 20 vehicles around the carpark, some freedom campers, some surfers, some families out for a swim, and people mill about, sitting on deck chairs, getting themselves organised, or simply gazing out at the beauty in front of them.
But the laidback, summery vibe of freedom camping came to an end yesterday as New Plymouth District Council’s new freedom camping amendments came into force. The city’s most popular freedom camping spot is now offlimits completely and across the district spots for non-self contained campers has been slashed from 54 to 15.
‘‘It’s too restrictive,’’ says Teena Te Awhe, who is from New Plymouth but is a regular freedom camper. She feels that word has already got out and freedom campers are staying away from the region Lonely Planet judged second best in the world to visit for 2017.
‘‘Looking at social media, people have said they were going to come here but now they’re not.’’
Partner Dave Leishman says he’d talked to an American man who was under the impression that ‘they don’t like freedom campers in New Plymouth’.
‘‘It’s an overreaction,’’ he says. ‘‘What amazed me was they were promoting the place for years trying to get people to come here and they came here, and they want to prosecute them.’’
A Stratford family is having a birthday picnic. They come for day trips, and they say over the years the number of campers has increased more and more.
‘‘It doesn’t matter if you keep everything nice and clean,’’ Rita Van Eikenhorst says. ‘‘Everyone can enjoy the beautiful beach.’’
‘‘To be honest I think they should just go to the camping ground anyway,’’ Riejanne Campbell adds.
‘‘If you go on holiday it’s going to cost you money.’’
By 6pm, there are about 30 vehicles parked down at the river mouth, roughly half of which are freedom campers. And the four designated parks for non-self contained up above Lake Rotomanu are all taken.
In Stratford, no bylaw is in place so there are no restrictions, and in South Taranaki there are several areas that cater for all freedom campers, even those with tents, for up to three nights.
Freedom camping has been a part of New Zealand culture since time immemorial, but it entered the spotlight after the Government introduced the Freedom Camping Act in 2011 as a way to cater for the thousands of visitors travelling around the country for the Rugby World Cup.
The act stated that freedom camping was ‘‘presumed to be allowed unless explicitly prohibited’’ and gave councils and the Department of Conservation (DOC) authority to decide where camping is allowed and issue fines.
But it also opened a can of worms.
As camping sites and carparks filled up, and in some cases overflowed, councils scrambled to find a solution.
New Plymouth’s council allowed self-contained campers to stay for two nights in any carpark unless specified otherwise, but complaints started to come in as non-self contained campers arrived, and the council undertook a review.
They needed to. The second best region in the world title brought in a relative deluge of visitors – many of them young travellers tripping around the country on the cheap, sleeping in their vans or cars.
Public consultation was sought as the number of freedom campers rose to 716 in 2017, up from 297 two years earlier – and that was only counting 13 sites from Thursday to Saturday.
Venture Taranaki, which oversees tourism in the region, says they don’t have exact data on freedom campers alone, but the award put Taranaki on the map for travellers, both international and domestic.
‘‘Alongside this growth comes responsibility to ensure our environment and what is unique about Taranaki are preserved
while delivering an amazing visitor experience,’’ says Vicki Fairley, general manager of tourism.
‘‘This is a challenge for New Zealand as a whole.’’
Freedom camping numbers rose sharply, and that left no choice but for councils to regulate it. But it was important to remember there is a distinction between those selfcontained and those not, she adds – if you are self-contained you can still camp anywhere, except for Waiwhakaiho and coastal reserves where all camping is banned.
In late 2017 the council adopted a free-for-all position welcoming freedom campers to most areas. But that lasted less than a month with overcrowding causing dozens of complaints and the council was forced to bring in an amendment to limit numbers.
That amendment expired in April 2018, was extended to October, and the council again reviewed the bylaw. The debate finally made it to full council at the end of November, where it was decided to allow only 15 spaces across the district – six car parks at Waitara’s Battiscombe Tce, five at Corbett Park, Oakura, and four at Lake Rotomanu.
It’s less than a third of the numbers the year prior, and it will make an impact, says Tom Martin, who is from Canada but now lives in Wellington and freedom camps to explore, spending three nights in New Plymouth for the Tattoo Festival.
‘‘For somebody like me, I decide where I’m going to go based on knowing that I’m going to be able to find a place to camp.
‘‘As soon as there are clear restrictions on space and restrictions on numbers, the confidence that I’m going to find a place decreases so I’ll just go somewhere else.
‘‘The option of freedom camping is entirely responsible for bringing me to Taranaki.’’
He says it’s likely that campers will turn up, find an area full and then just find a spot anyway – probably somewhere without a toilet or rubbish facilities or in a residential area.
And they are not all here freeloading and giving nothing back, he says – he spent $950 over the three nights he camped at Waiwhakaiho.
He says it’s comparable to the money spent by someone coming to stay in a hotel – he reckons he may have even spent less if he’d gone that route because there would be no need to top up supplies.
But not everyone agrees on the impact on tourism. Bruce Lochore, chief executive of the NZ Motor Caravan Association, says the tighter restrictions won’t affect visitor numbers. He thinks the rules gives travellers certainty.
‘‘People know what they’re doing, where they’re going in advance. It’s a far more manageable camping opportunity,’’ he says.
He reckons the council have struck a good balance between welcoming visitors and hearing the concerns of the locals. And the majority of freedom campers are still fellow Kiwis exploring their own backyard, and most of those will be self-contained, he says.
‘‘It is a social contract between visitor and community.
‘‘We have 42,000 vehicles registered with us, compared to about 6000 in the rental industry... The domestic market is still way, way bigger than the international market, especially in Taranaki.’’
And non-self contained freedom campers are not the only tourists. The founder of the CamperMate app, Adam Hutchinson, agrees that most visitors will not stop coming as long as there is a range of accommodation options, unless they are only looking for freedom camping sites.
In fact most people using CamperMate are already in Taranaki when they start looking for somewhere to spend the night. With the mobile app, people are planning as they go rather than a week or two ahead, he says.
‘‘If you look at the majority of people, 75 per cent of people are viewing the freedom camping site within about 200km of the site itself. What we’re seeing is that more and more people are getting the confidence to arrive in a region and make their decision quite late.’’
The campers, enjoying one of their last nights of freedom, agree.
Janet and Ken Davies from Feilding travel around to visit their children, and while it’s a shame to have the beautiful Waiwhakaiho banned for camping, they understand some areas need to be saved for locals.
‘‘They’ve got lots going for them in Taranaki,’’ Janet says. ‘‘There’s so much to do.’’