Unfortunately so do the bankers and the Chinese!
Another thing that annoys me is how DOC keep increasing the cost to stay in there camps, most North Island camps now cost $18 per person, and they recently introduced another category " Scenic Camp" As a way to charge even more for a Basic Long Drop toilet with a View⌠These prices are why people are choosing to camp in Free spots with no toilets or bins whilst DOC camps sit empty for a good part of the year⌠I Believe every Kiwi Citizen should receive a 2 week âFREE PASSâ to stay in any DOC camp⌠
We pay & we pay & it will just get worse in times to come. Being a Govt department they are masters of controlling people with the peoples own money. Pay in taxes & then pay again to use a service you have already paid for. Obviously you arent going to mind paying something & the DOC camps used to be very reasonable but I guess there were many who abused the honesty box system & the money wasnât being deposited. I bet the worst for that would have been the overseas tourist backpacker & camper van crowds. There needs to be a divide between overseas tourists, who pay no taxes here, nothing should be free to them for camping, & your tax paying kiwi citizen. I am a believer in user pays. That is only fair but overseas tourist should not be able to benefit & ride on our coat tails.
As to Moonlight, Mark was like a caretaker of the area at no cost to DOC or anyone. He just did his thing up there sluice boxing. He kept an eye on those who abused the place & gave them a tune up & told them to pack up & F⌠off if they were out of bounds with their rubbish etc. I think the âlocalâ DOC officer a few years back realised that & left him alone for quite a while. He was doing a good job. Obviously the powers to be have waved their big stick. 
JW 
I agree⌠I met Mark on a couple of Occasions and he did a great job of keeping the site clean at no cost to DOC and even pointing me in the right direction to pan a bit of the shiny stuff⌠but it only takes one doo gooder to complain in writing about someone getting something they arenât and it doesnât matter how nice the local DOC guy is he has no choice but to do somethingâŚ
20 years ago when I first started my annual journey to the South. There were 150,000 tourist passing thru Haast each year. This year it had reached 450,000. They all paid gst on their travel cost. Government didnât put much or anything back into it. We reaped what we sowed . On a side note , kiwis are pretty grubby and tight with deep pockets as much as the tourists. Covid hasnât stopped the problem
2 Likes
So true. Since moving to the coast, Iâve come to realise just how filthy NZers are. Stop in any rest area or lay by & look over the bank. Whiteware, car parts, furniture & household rubbish everywhere. Thats not the tourists. Doc provide some great campsites. We trash them. Its no wonder the fees go up.
Unfortunately you are correct that some NZ Citizens are destroying it for the majority of us that enjoy and respect the environment⌠
sorry to say but we seem to have always been like it . when hunting up north in the uaweras you never stopped at the road end hut it was always trashed. and that was in the early 70s when i was meat hunting. but even today its the same. bottles left in the hut with a note in the book saying âleft a candle holderâ could have been honest and said âim to bloody lazy to carry out my rubbishâ
the council are partly to blame with their excessive dump fees its cheaper to throw over the bank
Canât understand DOCâs notice âself contained camping onlyâ. Never seen a self contained backpacker. Or do the purists carry out human waste like the special forces