So a few days into our NZ trip, we were in for a bit of a shock. Unlike how we had remembered pulling over on the side of the road and camping wherever we wanted when we had been there several years before, there was now very strict rules in place about where you could camp, even with a campervan. This is largely in part due to the explosion of tourists NZ has had (since perhaps the Lord of the Rings) and to tourists not respecting rules and nature (eg. pooping wherever, leaving toilet paper and other trash all over, and bathing in pristine rivers and lakes).
The term used for camping, without cost, anywhere (setting up your tent anywhere or just pulling over in your van and sleeping) is termed Freedom Camping. Many of the popular tourist areas and towns now ban freedom camping within town limits and in certain sensitive areas, which I totally understand. What we didn't know going into our trip was that in order to Freedom Camp in the allowed areas, you had to have a certified Freedom Camping vehicle. What this means is that you have a campervan that is self-contained. What a self-contained camper van means in most counties is one that can store rubbish for 3 days, can store human waste for 3 days, can store grey water for 3 days, and can sleep the people inside the van
more precisely:
The term used for camping, without cost, anywhere (setting up your tent anywhere or just pulling over in your van and sleeping) is termed Freedom Camping. Many of the popular tourist areas and towns now ban freedom camping within town limits and in certain sensitive areas, which I totally understand. What we didn't know going into our trip was that in order to Freedom Camp in the allowed areas, you had to have a certified Freedom Camping vehicle. What this means is that you have a campervan that is self-contained. What a self-contained camper van means in most counties is one that can store rubbish for 3 days, can store human waste for 3 days, can store grey water for 3 days, and can sleep the people inside the van
more precisely:
WHAT IS A SELF-CONTAINED CAMPERVAN?
First things first, let’s get the definition out of the way. Self containment NZS 5465:2001 is the certification used to show that a campervan can contain water waste for up to 3 days. This includes water in the form of water supply, grey water (sink and shower water), and septic waste. In detail, these are the features a campervan must meet to be self-contained.
Note: “per person” is measured on the amount of people a campervan can sleep, for instance, a 3-berth campervan needs will need to meet the minimum tank storage requirements for three people.
Even if a campervan has all these features, it is not classed as “certified self-contained” until it has received a warrant under the NZ Standard for Self Containment of Motor Caravans and Caravans, NZS 5465:2001.
When we rented our campervan, we had no idea such a rule existed. We wrongly assumed that any campervan rented in NZ would be able to camp anywhere. Bongo of course was not self-contained. The rental car company, Rental Car Village, that we rented from, did not provide any of that info or give us any sorts of heads up on their website, via email, or when we picked up the van. Thus, we actually didn't learn about the freedom camping rules in their entirety until a couple weeks into our trip. If you have a non self-contained vehicle, you must stay in DOC campsites or town and other private campsites or RV parks. We got a great deal with Bongo b/c we were renting long term, it was old, small, and not fancy, so we were paying about $50 kiwi dollars per day, which was about $37 USD per day. For us that was great, but the campsites in NZ aren't cheap and charge per person, not per vehicle. So if we were to follow the law and park are non self-contained camper in established campsites, it was going to get expensive. The cheapest DOC campsites were $8/person, but most were $13-15 per person. The RV parks were $20-40/person. So you can imagine adding, say, on average, $30-40 per day for the two of us for our 2 month long trip was going to be quite the financial hit! The expensive RV parks were nice (we stayed at 1 on our trip) but the DOC campsites were pretty poor facility-wise for how much they were. Most didn't have potable water and had 1 or 2 over-used outhouses and were packed (some parked like a grocery store parking lot). A similar price for a campground in a U.S. NP would get you potable water and probably a hot shower to go with bathroom facilities with sinks. Fire bins and space from your neighbor.
Right or wrong, we decided we were going to mostly just freedom camp anyways and try to get away with it. During our time we mostly freedom camped. We spent 10 nights in huts, paid for camping 6 times, and stayed in one air bnb. We did try to avoid illegally freedom camping as much as we could. Elisha had an app on her phone (campermate, I believe) that would sometime list where you could camp for free even with a non self-contained vehicle, so we tried to do that as much as we could. After we got our freedom camping violation in Wanaka, we were more careful about where we camped in the heavy touristy areas. The rest of our time in Wanaka, we camped at a kiwi's house that we had met at a hut. Despite the risk of the $200 fine for freedom camping, we decided it was financially smarter to freedom camp. In the end, $200 only got us 8-10 nights at a campground, and it seemed the rate of being caught was low.
As I said, we did try to use campermate to camp in places we were allowed to camp without a self-contained vehicle. On top of that, we followed the leave no trace mantra that had been ingrained in us as outdoors people in the west. When possible we tried to camp near to a toilet (interestingly, when we got our fine in Wanaka, we were within 100yds of a toilet, which we tried to explain in our letter to get the fine reduced, but they did not accept it). But whether we were near a toilet or not, we always drove to a visitor center, mcdonalds or what not to do our #2 business. Had we had an emergency we would have dug a poo hole, like you do in the woods of America. One of the problems in NZ is people are just pooing all over and not burying it and just throwing toilet paper around. Part of why we felt okay with this is that the people in self-contained vehicles were not really using them as self-contained. People in vehicles the same size as us and many, many minivan style campers were certified self-contained. But in our opinion, the only truly self-contained were the larger motorhomes. The reason we believe this is that most in those self-contained vehicles still cooked and did dishes outside, and we saw many bathing (with shampoos) in the beautiful lakes. But the funniest was of course the toilet. The little vans just had this little toilet you could pull out, like maybe what you'd take on a river trip. Of course no one was using these! Of course you're not going to poop and pee in your tiny van, and pretty unlikely you're going to pull it out to sit on in a crowded campsite. Not to mention the campervan companies gave refunds if you didn't use it. So almost all self-contained vans were doing their business in the same way a non self-contained van would, and for most that meant pooing without digging and throwing their toilet paper to the wind. The other thing with the rule that we got a kick out of was that you could have your non self-contained van in any of those areas all day. So you could be cooking, cleaning, peeing, pooping there from 5am til midnight, but it was during that night time when you couldn't be there. For us, it is the night time where we had the smallest impact. Because of the way we travelled, we almost always cooked our meals, even dinner, at a place different from where we slept, bc we'd kind of drive or do activities until dark, then find a place, pull over, and just sleep.
Anyways, we did break the rules, but we felt we were responsible with our camping (probably more so than most self-contained campers), and we felt we couldn't really financially afford the additional cost we would have had to do in order to pay for camping every night. Now we know how things work, so we'd either pay more form the start and rent a self-contained van or probably better yet, get a super cheap (and economic to drive) car. Carry a tent with you for when you're in a pinch, but use air bnbs and the RV parks (that had cheap little cabins for rent) instead.
I was pretty fired up about the whole thing after we got the tickets. We had found out that freedom camping was very "topical' as the kiwis call it. I wanted to write a very detailed letter to a few of the papers in the big tourists areas (eg. wanaka and queenstown) with complaints, but also with solutions. B/c I do see that there is a major problem with all the campers and most of the campers not following the leave no trace idea. I had thought up some ideas like you have to watch a short video on leave no trace on the airplane in (or at your rental car place) and then pass a test. Or some other ideas b/c I think the main problem is people from other cultures not understanding how camping in the woods works, or apathetic people. But alas, by the time I got home, I had run out of some steam, had forgotten many of my ideas, and have just felt too busy to do it
Here is the letter we got back when we tried to plead our case to get our fine reduced. We wrote a hand-written letter, which I don't have, just the reply. But we had argued, that we arrived really late at night, so didn't hardly utilize the place, had purposely picked a place near an outhouse (which we did b/c our guidebook, The Lonely Planet, had said freedom camping was only illegal if you were away from a toilet, so that is how we had been viewing freedom camping), and a few other things, but to no avail.
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Apr 10
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Good Afternoon Travis Guy,
Thank you for your request regarding waiver infringement.
It is your responsibility to ensure you are aware of any rules and regulations that will affect you whilst travelling. This information is available via our websitewww.qldc.govt.nz along with various camper apps and at the I site information offices. There is signage on all roads entering and leaving both Queenstown and Wanaka to advise you are entering a No Freedom Camping Zone, were you are not allowed to camp. Freedom Camping is prohibited for any vehicles that are not certified self-contained, and even vehicles with the correct certificate these type of vehicles are only permitted to park in certain specific areas only. We have significant issue with freedom camping in this district and receive several complaints in a daily basis.
Therefore on this basis we are not prepared to waive this infringement.
Kind Regards,
Ash
Ash Sridharan | Regulatory Support | Regulatory + Finance
Queenstown Lakes District Council
DD: +64 3 441 1793 | P: +64 3 441 0499
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