The One Where Freedom Camping Isn't "Free"

Forty bucks will buy you a patch in the grass, a kitchen with no pots, pans, utensils, cups, plates, or bowls, a stove with one setting (burn everything), a refrigerator that you can unlock with a $2 coin, dish soap that you sheepishly borrow from a high school kid, showers that will put you another $2-5 in debt, internet access (for an extra $12 an hour), bathrooms impossibly far from your sleeping quarters, and a bunch of screaming kids. Sounds appealing right?

With “freedom camping” increasingly becoming a problem with the locals around New Zealand, my friend Nicky and I decided tonight to be polite law-abiding tourists and pay for a campsite in the small surf city of Raglan rather than quietly slipping to the side of the road and bedding down for the night. Normally we would park somewhere unobtrusive, cook dinner in the back of the van, find a public toilet to do our business, be in bed around eight, and be quietly asleep by nine. In the morning we pack up our things (sometimes taking other people’s discarded trash with us) and head out for a cuppa and some shopping. So how do we get acknowledged for our low-impact sleeping and economy boosting spending? Threats of a $200 fine and a big ‘get the hell out and don’t come back’. It’s almost worth it when compared to absurdly priced “camp sites” up the road.

It is understandable that locals have become frustrated with campers parking on private property, ditching rubbish, and leaving behind appalling poo poo’s (and the accompanying toilet paper)… and I can easily see why freedom camping is losing support. But not every Yank in a van is going to live up to the stereotype that a handful of tourists have unfortunately given the rest of us. I really don’t understand how someone can have the mentality of ‘lets head to this beautiful country and give the locals a big thanks by chucking out our garbage on the side of the road and taking a big crap next to that lovely tree’. What’s even more atrocious: meeting those tourist and watching first-hand how they toss aside their plastic packaging and beer can along with their cigarette butts. Their response when confronted? Generally a shrug and a helpful reassurance that ‘Someone will pick it up’ or that, ‘we’re leaving so it doesn’t really matter’.

Excuse me while I puke.

If someone can shed light on this mentality (in today’s age when we have constant reminders of our carbon footprint etc) please e-mail me! So while I hate to disrespect the people and government of this stunning country – I equally cannot subject myself to being ripped off of forty hard-earned dollars for a ‘proper’ campsite. So RESPONSIBLE freedom camping – here we come!

-Ashley

Fun Fact: Want to check out with your own eyes how adorable Raglan is? Rent the movie The Endless Summer, shot on location in the tiny New Zealand town amongst its’ world-class surf.