Click photo to enlarge
Absolute beachfront camping at Maraehako Bay, from the book
'Let's Go Camping'. Photo by Sarah Bennett and Lee Slater.
The Kiwi camping holiday has a long tradition with
families going back to the same sites and meeting the same
friends year after year. But not all camping holidays have to
be in regulated rows in motorcamps. Charmian Smith talks to
Sarah Bennett, co-author of a new book Let's Go Camping,
about back-to-nature camping.
Searching for the best camp sites in New Zealand, Sarah
Bennett and husband Lee Slater travelled 20,000km last
summer.
They were looking for places of outstanding natural beauty
which had things to do nearby, Sarah Bennett says.
They love to set up camp in a beautiful spot, and just hang
out - go for walks, read, fish, let the kids run about and
explore.
"People move around too much on their holidays, even if they
just stay in a motel and go to the mall every day," she said.
The couple selected 66 places throughout the country where
you can pitch a tent or park a van and enjoy the natural
surroundings; sites that take you right into the landscape,
such as the rolling high country of Molesworth or the schisty
outcrops of Central Otago.
Naturally, many Department of Conservation sites feature in
their selection, but also some commercial sites.
"We were really pleasantly surprised to see there were so
many good commercial campsites that were still in really
beautiful places.
"One thing that struck me as we went along, a lot of
campground owners are actually quite green people.
"I guess it's something about managing a form of
accommodation that is environmentally quite low impact, and
in those wider, more open spaces, a lot of managers seemed to
be doing things like restoring streams and planting
boundaries."
Back-to-nature camping may not be for everyone, but for those
who don't mind a bit of dark and a dicey toilet and no
electricity, it's an incredible experience for incredible
value.
Most Doc sites cost only a few dollars per person a night and
now have flush toilets and drinking water.
It's hard to find a long drop at car-accessible Doc sites
these days, she says.
Even though some of the top-end Top 10 holiday parks in the
high season can be pricey, camping is generally still quite
affordable and some councils even provide free sites, such as
at Monkey Island at Te Waewae Bay (and a handful of others in
Southland), at Reids farm near Taupo, and the Waimakariri Doc
site on the Arthur's Pass road.
While there's a Kiwi tradition of
free camping, it doesn't necessarily follow that everyone is
on top of the issue of waste disposal.
"Last summer, because we were mixing with a lot of
tourism-related people, whether they were Doc rangers or
people at the regional tourism organisations, we were coming
across disgruntled citizenry," Ms Bennett says.
Among the problems are human faeces and toilet paper left
where others will encounter them, litter, and streams and
waterways polluted by detergent.
"It's become quite a significant problem, and the reason it's
become such a big problem is the advent of those small
backpacker vans without toilets," she says.
"The ripple effect from this is that councils such as
Queenstown Lakes are clamping down on freedom camping and
Coromandel has instituted a fine and I suspect more regional
councils will be instituting bylaws to try to prevent people
doing it."
The Freedom Camping Forum, (www.camping.org.nz) has been set up
to inform and educate both visitors and locals, she says.
"People don't actually know the basics of how to dispose of
their waste properly - even New Zealanders who haven't spent
time in the bush don't realise you have to bury your toilet
waste and pick a spot away from a waterway - that's basic.
"If you are travelling round in a car, throw a little trowel
in."
"Every year you see tourists washing their hair or clothes or
dishes in streams in national parks, polluting the water with
detergents.
"The best way is to wash
in a bowl or bucket and empty the soapy water on the ground
so it is filtered before entering the water table."
- charmian.smith@odt.co.nz
Let's Go Camping: 66 great places to pitch your tent or
park your van, by Sarah Bennett and Lee Slater, is
published by Random House in conjunction with AA (pbk,
$39.95).
Go easy
Tips for environmental
care and low-impact camping
- Take rubbish away with you or put it in the proper bins -
even those bottle tops, cigarette butts and teabags.
- Use toilets where provided. If you are caught short, bury
your toilet waste in a shallow hole well away from waterways,
tracks, campsites and huts. Take a small trowel with you.
- Wash dishes, clothes and yourself using a bucket or bowl
away from lakes and waterways and empty the soapy water on
the ground so it is filtered before returning to the water
table.
- Empty portable toilets and waste-water tanks in proper dump
stations - a list of locations is available from information
offices.
- Preferably use portable fuel stoves for cooking. Check fire
regulations before lighting a fire, and use only dead wood
and make sure it is extinguished before leaving.
- Protect flora and fauna, and respect cultural and historic
sites.
- Consider others. People go into the country and bush for
many reasons, including peace and quiet.
- Take only photographs and leave nothing behind.
Top spots
Asked for her favourite
southern camp sites, Sarah Bennett says Mavora Lakes is one of
the most beautiful Doc campsites in the country; Pounawea Motor
Camp is probably her favourite commercial camp ground in the
country, with sea lions around the corner, many birds and an
original piece of virgin bush; and in Dunedin, Portobello
Village Tourist Park, is a low-key family camping spot where
they often stay.
Freebies
The
Otago Daily Times has five copies of
Let's Go
Camping to give away. To enter the draw for one, write your
name, address and daytime phone number on the back of an
envelope and send it to Let's Go Camping, Editorial Features,
Response Bag 500010 Dunedin, or email
playtime@odt.co.nz with Let's
Go Camping in the subject line, to arrive before November
16.
The long tradition of Kiwi camping holidays is illustrated by
these posters on display at the Hocken Gallery in Dunedin. "On
Vacation'' is on show until February 20, 2010.
