Visitor hordes cost DOC extra $3.6m
As national parks brace for peak tourist season, the Department of Conservation has upped its summer budget by $3.6 million, about a third of it devoted to dealing with human waste.
Visitor numbers at our most popular parks are heading towards a million a year, and DOC is pumping more resources into those areas to ensure fragile landscapes do not suffer.
DOC recreation, tourism and heritage director Gavin Walker said the extra money would cover 46 additional rangers – some of whom would police the payment of hut fees and tourism concessions – to oversee car parking and track maintenance.
But managing toilets was one of the department’s biggest operational expenses, and they were exploring options for composting toilets to reduce the expense of helicoptering waste from remote huts and walks.
‘‘If you think about 100,000 people going over the Tongariro Crossing, it’s a six or seven-hour trip for almost everybody and the vast majority are using one of the toilets provided up there, so that’s a lot of material to remove from an alpine landscape . . . it’s all flown out.’’
As part of its ‘‘Visit the Kiwi Way’’ campaign, DOC is encouraging New Zealanders to set an example for overseas visitors to follow by using toilets and not littering.
‘‘That’s a lot of material to remove from an alpine landscape.’’
Walker said many Kiwis were not averse to relieving themselves in the wild, but with such high visitor volumes, that kind of behaviour was no longer acceptable.
Avoiding traffic chaos
At Huka Falls two parking wardens will be on duty to direct traffic over Christmas and at long weekends, and at the Tongariro Crossing a park and ride system has helped reduce parking mayhem in the area.
DOC is looking at extending the model to Franz Josef Glacier next season and it is also an option to reduce congestion on the Milford road.
In the US and Canada, national parks attracting a million-plus visitors annually make sure peak numbers don’t exceed set limits and some places charge for car parking which can be booked in advance.
Although DOC does not currently charge for car parking in national parks, Walker said it could legally do so in the same way it charged hut fees, and that option was under consideration in certain locations.
Access issues
The National Parks Act guarantees the public free access, and use of tracks and roads and land generally, but he said that right was secondary to the need to protect the environment.
Up until now DOC had generally operated with a ‘‘simple infrastructure’’ and a ‘‘light touch’’ style of management but that had to change in popular areas such as Milford Sound and Aoraki Mt Cook National Park.
‘‘As places get busier and busier the philosophy of people – be they New Zealanders or international visitors – of being able to front up at a place of their choosing at a time of their choosing . . . that is really being challenged at the moment. Most places people will still be able to come and go at a time that suits them, but the really busy places may have other options like park and ride.’’
Hiding the goodies
DOC is also cognisant of the social impact of visitor growth on places dear to New Zealanders.
‘‘Places Kiwis used to go and they turn up and there’s a lot more people there. They just don’t feel that the place is as special as they remembered it.’’
Walker said word of mouth recommendations that might once have been shared with friends and family were now reaching a global audience thanks to social media.
Roys Peak above Lake Wanaka was a case in point with visits increasing a staggering 27 per cent last year as Instagrammers queued to photograph the view.
Walker said DOC’s objective was to have popular destinations, such as Milford Sound and Aoraki Mt Cook National Park, shoulder most of the burden of visitor growth through careful management, because it wasn’t realistic to expect overseas tourists to give them a miss.
‘‘It’s hard to say to somebody who has come to see the West Coast glaciers, how about this really neat picnic area down the road? But we can also make sure there are still some places locals and Kiwis can enjoy that are relatively uncrowded, uncluttered nature-based experiences.’’
Overseas movements have discouraged geo-tagging special spots in social media posts to prevent them being overrun with tourists and some Kiwi anglers avoid Facebook posts that identify their favourite fishing pools.
Walker doubts that will catch on with overseas tourists keen to brag about their holiday exploits, but it is something New Zealanders might want to think about .
‘‘If we really value places because they are quiet and undisturbed, we should be really careful about who we tell, and how we tell that story.’’