The council will spend over half a million dollars promoting responsible and sustainable camping across the district this summer, focusing on education and enforcement rather than free camping hubs.

Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) received $509,000k from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) for responsible camping initiatives which, this year, will not include camping service hubs.

During the past two summers a hub on Ballantyne Road provided showers, portable toilets, recycling and rubbish disposal, a dump station and one hour of free WiFi to travellers at no charge and freedom campers were encouraged to stay at the Red Bridge reserve near Luggate.

Instead, the money will be spent on “providing resources which focus on educating campers, monitoring behaviour and enforcement where required, along with gathering data from campers in the Queenstown Lakes district”, the council said in a statement on Friday (October 30).

This year, campers on the move will be recommended to utilise campgrounds throughout the district and “support local businesses, the council said. 

There will be extra enforcement resources for the Red Bridge camping site, Hāwea, and Wanaka this summer.

Sites in Queenstown and Wanaka will be made available free of charge for recycling and dumping rubbish.

QLDC community services general manager Thunes Cloete said eight responsible camping ambassadors would be employed to roam the district and “act as a friendly face of responsible camping”. 

Four ambassadors will be based in the Upper Clutha and Wakatipu area respectively.

“Our ambassadors’ focus will once again be to educate visitors on how to camp in our district in a sustainable and responsible way, while also promoting local campgrounds, gathering data and identifying trouble spots should they arise,” Thunes said.

Signage and information boards - including with clear details on what constitutes a self-contained vehicle - are in place to ensure campers are aware of where they can and can’t camp in the district.

The mayor is interested to see whether there are any behavioural differences between domestic campers and international visitors this summer.

Thunes said there was increased coverage and greater visibility of enforcement officers during the previous summer, and their presence was particularly well received in townships like Luggate, Glenorchy and Kingston.

“We were able to provide a greater level of consistency in applying enforcement across the district, with staff able to access DoC land and infringe those in breach of our Responsible Camping Bylaw,” he said.

Enforcement resources will continue over the 2020/21 period, with extra coverage of Glenorchy Road and the Crown Range, along with Gibbston, Hāwea, Wanaka and the Red Bridge site near Luggate, he said.

Thunes said the council continued to learn from previous summer seasons and factor those lessons into their plans, drawing from discussions with commercial operators and feedback received from campers and ambassadors.

“We’ve always said that these summer initiatives are trials and that we want to remain flexible enough to alter our approach,’ he said.

QLDC mayor Jim Boult said he was anticipating a busy season for the district as COVID-19 international travel restrictions would lead to more New Zealanders taking a domestic holiday.

While most campers in the district are responsible and treat the landscape with respect, the poor behaviour of a small minority of campers continues to be a cause of concern, he said.

“With the expectation that our district will host more domestic campers this summer compared to the usual number of international visitors, I’m looking forward to noting whether there are behavioural differences between these groups. This will be valuable for future camping strategies,” he said.

PHOTOS: Wanaka App