The 150th anniversary of Wakatipu’s founding fathers, William Rees and Nicholas Tunzelmann, arriving in this district was commemorated a few weeks ago. Although this milestone was celebrated with a re-enactment of the early settlers’ horse trek from the Kawarau Falls to Queenstown Bay, its passing and significance were overlooked by most. Like much of our early history, this coming of age was too easily forgotten. Our heritage should be celebrated, because the key reason people are still migrating in large numbers to this area today has remained the same – opportunity.

A few years ago you couldn’t go anywhere in Queenstown without experiencing the effects of a significant building boom. As the hammers banged and saws screamed many people questioned the sustainability of this town. When the recession hit last year, the expectation from some quarters was that Queenstown would suffer the consequences of its perceived greed. Yes, a few significant projects have gone belly up and yes a new respect for measured development has arisen. However, nothing it seems, can stop the popularity of this region.

Sometimes I get the feeling we are stuck in a cycle of inaction as the same seasonal issues plague the district year after year. The latest ‘issue’ is one we have covered here on the front page of the LWB last year, the year before that and yes, the year before that - freedom camping. Now the argument has reached government level, perhaps we will see some action. But what is the solution?

There is a positive and negative side to this recurring argument. The positive side is the thousands of happy campers travelling through our country, enjoying every moment, contributing to the economy and respectfully depositing the waste products of their adventures in the appropriate receptacles. The negative side is the few ignorant pigs littering our beauty spots and turning every family picnic venue into something reminiscent of a refugee camp.

When there is such a vastly different effect between the positive and negative, solutions become difficult to find. If anyone believes simply banning freedom camping is going to solve the problem, they are sorely mistaken. Outlawing freedom camping would transfer resources from managing our roadside spaces, to a pointless attempt at collecting infringement notices. Our beloved council have already proved themselves completely inept at collecting parking tickets from rental car/campervan visitors ($2.4 million of unpaid fines in 2008), so what makes you think they can successfully collect camping fines?

Although the president of the New Zealand Motor Caravan Association, Mr Dick Waters, advocates shooting freedom campers, I think we can all agree this would not be well received by the foreign press and therefore detrimental to our tourism industry. So that leaves education and facilities. Quite simply, we need more facilities, like toilets and rubbish bins, in the places where we want freedom campers to camp and they must be educated as to what is expected of them. Who better to pay for these initiatives than the people renting the vans, via levies on the rental car industry? Because the attitude of the rental car companies is so poor and lacking in accountability, it falls on the Government to force their hand. If every campervan has a $5 levy per day placed upon its rental fee, which funds facilities and education, then this issue would become a non-issue. And in a cunning twist freedom campers would pre-pay for the right to camp for free.

It was with huge disappointment that I strode down to the beach in Queenstown Bay on my half hour lunch break last Monday. Over the previous few weeks this had become a favourite place to bring my sandwiches, thanks to the fantastic atmosphere and viewing pleasure as hundreds of people spread themselves over the beach enjoying the summer weather. However, on this particular visit noisy diggers and dusty construction work had viciously invaded the space.