Freedom camper wants ban

A woman who has spent the past six months freedom camping around the South Island is calling for it to be banned, and wants New Zealand to impose a visitor ballot.

‘‘We opened all these areas for the Rugby World Cup in 2011 and they’ve never been closed up again,’’ Jennifer Branje said. ‘‘I liken it to when you have the family to stay for Christmas and you pull out the sofa bed, but then you never put it away and just start taking randoms in, and then start cleaning up after them.’’

She said private campervan companies were making huge profits, while ratepayers and taxpayers were paying to clean up after tourists and build infrastructure to cope with the unlimited numbers coming into the country. Privately owned campgrounds were also suffering.

‘‘If we select the volume of visitors we receive according to available accommodation options that support our tourism community, there would be no need to build roadside communes.’’

‘‘We are selling ourselves short. We ask travellers to respect our country while visiting, but have we lost respect for it ourselves?’’

Branje, of Southland, has freedom camped around the South Island spreading the message about her company, Southproud, an online guide for visitors.

‘‘I have lived among those who come here, buy a cheap peoplemover, van or station wagon and proceed to use our country as a temporary home,’’ she wrote on her blog. ‘‘I’ve been packed into designated ‘free camping’ areas like a proverbial sardine and witnessed total disrespect for our country, our people and our culture and an unconceivable sense of entitlement ... I’ve also visited beautiful camp grounds with excellent facilities that are hardly occupied. Why buy the milk when you can get the cow for free?’’