The Queenstown Lakes District Council says it is ‘‘hamstrung'' when dealing with freedom campers taking advantage of undeveloped private sites in the resort.
Last month, the Otago Daily Times reported an unauthorised freedom camp had been established on a vacant lot on the corner of Frankton Rd and Stanley St, used during the day as a free park for workers but taken over at night by tourists.
The council has no power to move freedom campers from private land.
However, Christchurch-based owner Eric Zuo fenced the site and erected signs to keep trespassers off his land.
Now, the campers have moved to another empty section on Park St.
Neighbour and former Queenstown Lakes District mayor Warren Cooper said the campers turned up about five weeks ago and each night about 30 cars parked on the site with the campers sleeping in their vehicles.
German Nicolas Drummer (23) stayed his first night at Park St on Tuesday.
He and friend Christian Petersen, who take odd-job contract work in Queenstown, had stayed at the Department of Conservation's Twelve Mile Delta camping ground for the past four weeks .
‘‘The Doc campground is cheap - it's just the distance from town,'' Mr Drummer said.
As for rubbish problems and a Newshub TV cameraman being jostled on Monday morning, he said: ‘‘I think it's a bunch of idiots. We keep our trash and don't leave it on the private property where we, luckily, are allowed to stay for free.
"Everybody has a car here, it's easy, you don't have to carry it by hand.''
Mr Drummer said if someone wanted to charge a small amount, like $10, to camp on the site, he would pay it, because of the proximity to the centre of town.
Mr Petersen said: ‘‘But this one's for free so we take it. Why not? You would take it also.''
Mr Cooper said the campers were ‘‘reasonably well organised'' and ‘‘pretty quiet''.
‘‘But, I'm not sure if it's what I'd call an added attraction to Queenstown.
‘‘They're well behaved but, I must say, we've tolerated it and we just hope it goes away.''
Queenstown Lakes District Council regulatory manager Lee Webster said the council was aware of the pop-up campsite and had been working with the landowner and property manager to have signage erected and restrict access to the land.
Attempts to contact the landowner yesterday were unsuccessful.
Mr Webster said part of the problem facing the council was how quickly word spread on social media of ‘‘free'' campsites.
‘‘Social media, it can react a lot faster than we can, particularly where they find a piece of land that someone has just brazenly gone on and trespassed to, then, ‘there's a great location here, no-one bothers you' or ‘no-one can bother you' ... we are almost hamstrung with how we can deal with that, particularly when it's on private land.
‘‘It's frustrating, it really is.''
While there had been allegations the campers at Park St had been defecating and urinating on the land, Mr Webster said the council needed ‘‘evidence'' before it could act.
-Additional reporting by David Williams
