Access to the old go-kart track in Kaikōura has been blocked after a car was set on fire. Photo: Suppled / Google Maps
The mayor of Kaikōura says gatherings at a popular old go-kart track have spiralled out of control.
The district council has blocked access to the track near the Kōwhai River since a car was set on fire last weekend and increasingly popular events created excessive noise and rubbish.
Mayor Craig Mackle said the local drift club had used the track for a while without problems.
"Young fellas and their cars, they discovered they could get in there and do a little bit of a drifting and it was all pretty tame. They were sort of left alone because the first thing I noticed was that the behaviours on the road out in the flats there had changed - they had somewhere they could go and let a bit of steam off."
But that had changed in the past three weeks as out-of-town groups came to use the track.
Mackle said last weekend a car was set on fire, and burnouts could be heard kilometres away at 2am.
He said people had also been freedom camping there, leaving a mess.
"It's just madness," he said. "Just rubbish everywhere, people have started camping there, no amenities."
Concrete blocks were now preventing access to the go-kart track.
The track would remain inaccessible until a working group found a long-term solution.