"If people stand up, and ring and complain, then [the] council can enforce," Maru told Stuff.

"The message we're sending is that if you come to this beautiful part of the country, there has to be an expectation that you're willing to pay something, and there are cheap options in camping grounds where there are toilets."

It's not the first time angry residents have confronted tourists doing their business. In May 2018, Kaikoura resident Dave Lyon confronted a tourist and filmed him while he was relieving himself at the beach.

"The past summer has been like a nightmare to live in - like a freedom camping nightmare," his wife Cezanne Lyons told Newshub at the time.

In February of that year, a resident of Aoraki/Mt Cook photographed a visitor defecating beside his driveway, Stuff reported.

"I saw him go across our driveway and said 'I'm not having this'," the unnamed resident said.

"He was in defence mode and said it was all perfectly natural," the resident told The Timaru Herald.