"An unspoken evil" is how the Department of Conservation is describing the issue of human defecation, beside or even on, our country's popular walking tracks.
A nationwide campaign is underway, urging visitors to "poo in a loo", rather than risk harm to the environment and people's health.
DOC Motueka Operations Manager Mark Townsend says there are a number of "brown spots" in Abel Tasman National Park, where a “minefield” of human waste and toilet paper is left.
“It's quite common throughout the country and it's one of those unspoken about kind of evils”.
Similar sights were reported on Queenstown's Ben Lomond track over Christmas.
The department is not just concerned over how the waste looks, it can also be harmful.
“It's a health hazard,” says Mr Townsend.
“People come to the Abel Tasman to recreate around the water, our beautiful rivers, the beaches of course. If people are defecating, especially close to streams, we run that horrible risk of diseases being transferred”.
There are 66 toilets along Abel Tasman's coast. Last year, DOC removed more than 100,000 litres of sewage from them, at a cost of $68,000.
As part of DOC’s "Love this Place" summer campaign, signage has been put up by sections where there are longer gaps between toilets. They encourage visitors to plan ahead and point out where the nearest facilities are.
Mr Townsend says DOC can’t “put a toilet on every corner”, and in the case of the Abel Tasman, the longest gaps between toilets are on inland sections, when the track leaves the coast and climbs hills.
He says to put a toilet there, they would need to be regularly emptied by helicopter flights, which are “extremely expensive and emit large quantities of greenhouse gasses”.
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