Dean Kozanic/Fairfax NZ

EYES ON CAMPERS: Marine Pde, New Brighton, is popular among freedom campers. Alex Doroschenko, a German tourist, camped near Thompson Park this week as part of a freedom camping trip around New Zealand.

South Island councils are taking a Big Brother approach to freedom campers this summer with officers monitoring hot spots across the city and Banks Peninsula.

Last year freedom campers clogged up the car park at the Akaroa boat ramp, creating chaos when boaties went to launch. They washed their hair under a tap. They cleaned their teeth at a drinking fountain.

Tensions boiled over and there were conflicts between boaties and tourists.

Residents at Catons Bay reportedly let out roosters to drive freedom campers away.

This year "no camping" zones were introduced around the Akaroa boat ramp to encourage people to use motorcamps instead, Akaroa-Wairewa Community Board chairwoman Pam Richardson said.

"That's where the facilities are and that's where people should be," she said.

The solution falls short of a bylaw, which councils on the West Coast and in the North Island have implemented.

In 2011 the Government passed the Freedom Camping Act, giving councils the power to regulate the practice.

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Councils keeping watch on freedom camper hot spots