{"id":344237,"date":"2026-03-23T21:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T21:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/344237\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T21:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T21:10:11","slug":"freedom-camping-hotspots-see-spike-in-fines-this-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/344237\/","title":{"rendered":"Freedom camping hotspots see spike in fines this summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The copuncil\u2019s Responsible Camping Programme Manager, Amy Galloway, said it had been a bumper summer, with sites full most nights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe spike reflects several things: the new rules<\/a>, visitor numbers returning to pre\u2011Covid levels, and the growing popularity of freedom camping. <\/p>\n

\u201cInfringements are a strong motivator for compliance, and numbers will probably fall as winter approaches,\u201d Galloway said.<\/p>\n

The Thames\u2011Coromandel District Council issued 379 infringements this summer, compared to 319 last year. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe Thames-Coromandel District Council’s bylaw came into effect in 2022, prohibiting freedom camping from certain areas.<\/p>\n

But the district is also dealing with a large backlog of unpaid fines. <\/p>\n

Data shows 743 infringements issued between December 2022 and March this year remain outstanding. <\/p>\n

Just over 500 of those are now more than a year old, with the amount left unpaid from these totalling at least $100,000. <\/p>\n

The council said unpaid fines were pursued and eventually filed with the Ministry of Justice for enforcement. <\/p>\n

In the Waikato District, 203 fines were issued over summer, all of them in Raglan. That\u2019s a slight rise from 191 in the district the previous year. <\/p>\n

The council tightened its bylaw late last year, banning freedom camping on Raglan\u2019s James Street after ongoing issues with antisocial behaviour and overcrowding. <\/p>\n

The Waikato District Council\u2019s acting customer services manager, Imelda Bolton, said Raglan\u2019s popularity brought waves of visitors, which sometimes led to parking problems, litter and abandoned vehicles. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal is to manage behaviour so camping can continue responsibly, in the right places.\u201d <\/p>\n

In contrast, another popular holiday spot, the Far North, saw no fines over summer. <\/p>\n

The Far North District Council said its approach focuses on educating campers about the rules, which in most cases achieves compliance. <\/p>\n

The council said infringement notices remained an option for repeated or serious non-compliance, but this hadn\u2019t been necessary to date. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the New Zealand Motorhome and Caravan Association isn\u2019t surprised by the rising number of fines across Queenstown-Lakes, Thames-Coromandel and Waikato. <\/p>\n

National Property and Policy Manager James Imlach said the issues were \u201cmostly self\u2011inflicted\u201d, despite councils providing designated sites. <\/p>\n

He said many of the sites were poorly located or couldn\u2019t accommodate the number of travellers now on the road. <\/p>\n

\u201cDemand for freedom camping has risen a lot, while the supply of suitable sites where people can camp responsibly<\/a> has shrunk,” Imlach said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost campers are trying to follow the rules, but are being caught out by [the] council\u2019s increasingly hard-line enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kate Rickard is an Auckland-based multimedia journalist for Newstalk ZB covering tourism, immigration, and general news. She previously studied journalism at AUT before joining ZB full-time in April 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The copuncil\u2019s Responsible Camping Programme Manager, Amy Galloway, said it had been a bumper summer, with sites full…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11689,2840,1558,18987,107530,8987,24267,305,189,53356,78,130,111,43,139,69,10534,2441,14625,131,1961,45082],"class_list":["post-344237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-11689","tag-across","tag-been","tag-camping","tag-dished","tag-fines","tag-freedom","tag-have","tag-holiday","tag-hotspots","tag-in","tag-more","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-see","tag-spike","tag-summer","tag-than","tag-this","tag-unlawful"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}