WE'RE OFF: German visitors Danilson Dala and Andrew Triendade pack up their gear to look for somewhere else for the night after using the carpark on several occasions.

Freedom campers are packing up after the Christchurch City Council put up a "no camping sign" at the council-owned car park in New Brighton.

The measure came after a German freedom camper pulled a knife during an argument with a photographer yesterday and a tense week between the group of campers who overtook the car park and New Brighton residents.

German camper Danilson Dala said he was having breakfast this morning when council staff came and told him and about 20 other campers to leave.

"Everyone agreed to leave, it was pretty peaceful," he said.

Dala said he was disappointed in his experience freedom camping in Christchurch,

"It's a little bit rude that the council and the neighbours kicked us out because we just slept here and cleaned up after ourselves."

He said most campers were working in Christchurch during the day and that the site was always left clean.

Dala had stayed at the New Brighton car park for about a week. He had traveled all over New Zealand for the past three months.

It was the first time he was kicked out of a site, he said.

"In New Brighton people are really rude - nothing like other New Zelanders we've met."

Councilor Glenn Livingstone said council staff took all the steps they could to rid the car park of the freedom campers this morning, including the signage.

"At this stage, it seems to work."

Livingstone said he visited the car park at about 1:30 pm today and saw seven young men packing up their camping gear.

Last night, several tents and camper vans were there, he said.

"I had a conversation with the tourists and they knew they had to go," he said.

"Fingers crossed that it will stay that way," he said.

CAMPER IN HEATED STOUSH

David Walker, a photographer with The Press, went to the site yesterday after the newspaper this week published complaints from neighbours about the campers' behaviour.

He was investigating whether there had been changes at the car park since the complaints.

Walker said he was approached by about half a dozen campers, who took offence to him taking pictures in the public space.

He said he was followed by a German tourist, who threatened to "smash" his head and told him he had no right to photograph the campers.

The confrontation became "heated" when he refused to stop taking photos, Walker said.

"[The camper] went to his van and pulled out a six-inch hunting knife, which he pulled out of the sheath in front of me. I said to him, 'Put the knife down' . . . then I noticed there was a girl behind me with a steak knife."

Walker said the pair hid the knives behind their backs when he began recording the confrontation.

The German man was picked up by police after Walker laid a complaint.

It is lawful to take photographs of people in public places without their consent, unless they are in a place they can expect privacy.

Sean Hibbs, of the New Brighton police, confirmed the camper was issued a warning.

A concerned resident, who did not want to be named, said she had confronted the campers multiple times, only to be ridiculed and harassed.

When she approached them on Thursday afternoon, she said she was shoved by one of the campers. "They're really nice to some people but if you go up and say, 'Look guys, this is not on', they just turn on you. They get angry and scream and just go crazy," she said.

"They know they're being a public nuisance. It's almost like they're reveling in it."

Neighbour Diane Greenfield said dozens of campers had a large party on Wednesday.

They drank heavily, slammed doors and beeped their horns in what she described as a "rebellion".

Greenfield believed the freedom campers were retaliating for negative media exposure.

Earlier this week, 19-year-old German Max Viehmeier said he had been staying at the New Brighton car park for a month and campers had been considerate until recently.

"When I returned from a trip last week I was totally embarrassed," he said.

"There was a lot of rubbish and it looked like a festival."

Freedom camping is legal on almost all local government property, unless individual councils make a bylaw restricting when and where people can freedom camp.

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