Conservation board wants more support for DOC

The Southland Conservation Board is concerned DOC may not have enough support as it grapples with unprepared tourists coming to strife in the Fiordland National Park.

At its meeting yesterday, board members discussed the challenges DOC faced at places like the Gertrude Saddle where several tourists have died.

The board will now write to the Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage to determine if DOC has the resources it needs.

On Tuesday, the coroner released findings on two deaths that had occurred at the saddle, both of which were similar in their circumstances.

The coroner was critical of DOC saying it was possible it could have prevented one of the deaths if it had acted quicker on its own advice.

Many board members felt DOC had been put in a difficult position because ultimately visitors were responsible for their own safety.

The deaths came as part of a noticeable trend where increasing numbers of visitors were venturing into situations that were beyond their experience or they were not equipped for.

Te Anau operations manager Greg Lind, who spoke at the board meeting, said by and large the people who were visiting the saddle were ill-equipped and illinformed. DOC had tried to reduce the profile of the track by removing any attractive photos from the website and not putting the route into its day walks guide, Lind said.

But visitors were no longer using the DOC website for information and instead of finding their information through social media and other channels.

The department was in a difficult position because adding more markers to the Gertrude Saddle route could push people further into riskier parts of the track, he said. On the other hand, if they removed all of the markers, signs and the carpark from the area there was the concern people would still seek out the saddle, Lind said.

In 2015, German tramper Christine Lenicker died after she fell Homer Saddle.

It is believed that she confused the Homer Saddle with the Gertrude Saddle as the two are close together.

DOC recreation and historic principal ranger Grant Tremain, who was also at the meeting, said more often he saw people heading to locations they could have only found out about from social media. A lot of people were under the impression that routes or tracks had a reasonable level of safety if they saw DOC signs, markers or structures associated with them, Tremain said.

As for taking advice, he said there had been plenty of cases where visitors had ignored the advice they had been given and died as a result, he said.

DOC had tried to reduce the profile of the track by removing any attractive photos from the website . . .