That is until a large rescue helicopter lands there and turns the tent into a giant, shredded windsock.
Helicopters Otago Ltd managing director Graeme Gale said the helipad was used "spasmodically and randomly" by his rescue helicopters, so pitching a tent there was "ill-considered".
"It’s a very strange place to have it — for someone to turn the helipad into a camping ground, that’s not acceptable for us, hence why we rang the police to move them on."
He said if a helicopter did land there, it would destroy the tent and everything inside it.
"It’ll just blow them to bits.
"And there’s the risk of it getting tangled in our blades or something like that.
"Obviously someone’s come to town that doesn’t know what that area is for.
"We use it when we’ve got multiple jobs on the go and we can only get one helicopter on the roof of Dunedin Hospital at a time, and it might have to jump off the roof and go down to Kitchener St and wait until the next machine comes in.
"So we could have a couple of machines down there waiting to go and pick up the crews from the hospital. Or if we have a police job or a search and rescue job, we’ll use Kitchener St."
Mr Gale said Helicopters Otago was notified of the tent by a Kitchener St business, so he contacted police to have it removed.
"I think it’s just someone that hasn’t realised the importance of it.
"It probably just looked like a nice place to camp beside the water and close to the city, so they’re probably having a great time, enjoying our city and our weather.
"I hope they’ll enjoy the rest of their camping trip."
Senior Sergeant Anthony Bond said the tent was loaned out to a homeless person by a Dunedin community organisation.
When police officers visited the tent yesterday morning and did not find any occupants, it was packed down and removed by the community organisation.
He said the helipad was well signposted and it was irresponsible to pitch the tent there.
"It’s pretty well signposted and obvious what that area is used for.
"So it just depends on whether the tent was pitched during daylight hours or during the night time."
No charges would be laid in connection with the incident, he said.
