The saving of paradise
Rebecca Macfie’s excellent “Peak paradise” story ( January 14) clearly lays out the challenges we have ahead in salvaging our precious wilderness icons. But I’m not sure what all the fuss is about. It’s simple, really: just get Tourism New Zealand to make a name change to the “Great Crowded Walks”. Then, if that doesn’t work, change it to the “Great Overcrowded Walks”.
In the meantime, to find rapidly disappearing solitude in our iconic mountain scenery, I’ve resolved to walk Fiordland’s Routeburn Track, Avalanche Peak in Arthur’s Pass National Park and Aoraki/ Mt Cook’s Mueller Hut in midwinter (with all the necessary safety equipment), when snow and ice prevent the queues of visiting tourists – some, no doubt, in Jandals – from hiking them.
But I dare not mention this to guide-book publisher Lonely Planet.
Stephen LeCouteur (New Windsor, Auckland)
You may have chosen a poor hook – Barcelona becoming a theme park – for your editorial on tourism growth (“Stealing beauty”, January 14). Given that world tourism will grow significantly, Barcelona and areas in New Zealand could benefit from incorporation as cohesive networks of broadly conceived theme parks.
Stretch your mind a bit. As the Economist magazine has noted periodically over the past 25 years, theme parks are in the business of entertaining tourists using technological innovations to preserve, even enhance, resident sanctification. But their ownership is too concentrated. Let’s give locals a financial stake in the privately owned tourist endeavours; for example, via ownership of shares in themepark corporations – again broadly conceived.
I could see the Karangahape Rd or New Lynn areas of Auckland becoming bodies corporate, operating under a revised Unit Titles Act. Forming such corporations would constrain private individual/ developer actions by a group conscience. The Unit Titles Act – essentially dealing with the interface of the government, law and private collectives – might need some reworking. But hey, on this issue, it’s all hands on deck.
Robert Myers (Auckland Central)
As a taxpayer, I paid to build the roads. I pay extra to use them when I drive. I also paid to build the Department of Conservation walking tracks. Someone – walkers – should pay to use them.
Many New Zealand visitors are here for business or confine themselves to urban centres. An eco entry fee at the border would be grossly unfair.
DoC needs to recover track maintenance costs, but only from the users. The upside is that cost recovery would need wardens and collection facilities, creating lots of jobs.
Pete Herridge (Wallaceville, Upper Hutt)