Waste at overcrowded Golden Bay freedom camping site sparks closure call

Monday, 13 January 2020

Vehicles were packed into the Waitapu Bridge freedom camping site in Golden Bay around 8am on January 5.

Faeces, litter and overcrowding at a popular Golden Bay freedom camping site have prompted a call for it to be closed.

Golden Bay resident Ron Eckman requested Tasman District Council and the Medical Officer of Health close the site at Waitapu Bridge on the outskirts of Takaka. Vehicles and tents were this month 'crammed tightly into almost every available space' with an estimated 300 people packed into the site, he said.

People queue to use a toilet just after 9am on January 7.

Photos he took show toilet paper and faeces, including what appears to be diarrhoea, on the ground along with a queue for the three available toilets.

'The site has become a public health risk with the possibility of a significant disease outbreak,' Eckman said. 'Campers regularly use the river to collect drinking water, brush their teeth, wash their dishes and clothes, bathe and swim. There is no running water at the site.

'Do people wash excrement off their hands, bodies and clothes in the river, upstream from where campers fill their drink bottles and wet their toothbrushes? Is this how this camper got diarrhoea?'

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People wash dishes in the Takaka River. Some campers also use the river to collect drinking water, brush their teeth, wash their clothes, bathe and swim.

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Council regulatory manager Adrian Humphries said a sanitary survey was under way on Monday to determine the infectious disease risk at the site. He expected a report late Monday or early Tuesday, which would be shared with the Medical Officer of Health.

The vast majority of people who used the site were 'decent, honest people like me and you', Humphries said.

'I haven't witnessed huge volumes of faeces,' he said, pointing out that some people defecated in bushes along state highways. 'There's the occasional individual who does it because some people are animals.'

Located beside the Takaka River, the Waitapu Bridge flooded in early December. Residents alerted campers who left 'just in time', according to a council newsletter.

Eckman said he believed it was irresponsible of the council to allow freedom camping at a site 'prone to flooding'.

Humphries said large rocks had been moved on to the site and signage would be installed to help prevent people camping right next to the water, which should reduce the likelihood of people being caught out by a flood and lower the possibility of overcrowding.

'People have a personal responsibility as well.'

There was also a plan to mark out individual spaces to help prevent overcrowding. Humphries said he was not yet prepared to put a number on how many spaces would be marked out but agreed the site had been overcrowded earlier this month.

'People have been trying to do the right thing and go where they're allowed to go,' he said. 'We need to have an additional site in Golden Bay.'

A survey of campgrounds from mid-December to January 6 found no vacancies while the cheapest spot for two people was $96 per night in a more recent ring around, Humphries said.

'The problem we've got is the camps' availability [and] … the majority of people don't want to pay and stay in a camp ground.'

People were allowed to freedom camp and if sites with basic facilities were not available, campers could spread out across the Bay, Humphries said.

He estimated at least half of the campers were New Zealanders. Police helped to trespass three vehicles last week belonging to people from Christchurch who had been at the site more than the two days allowable.

'The people who do cause us the most problems, especially in Golden Bay, are people from New Zealand.'

Eckman's call for the closure of the Waitapu Bridge site comes after Ngāti Tama ki Te Waipounamu Trust called for a ban on overnight camping at the popular spot, saying it must be protected from further degradation and pollution. The call from iwi came in a submission on the council's draft Responsible Camping Strategy. Recommendations from the hearing panel about the draft strategy are due to go to the council in early 2020.