Trampers torn on price hike for walks
A West Coast tramping club is ‘‘torn’’ about the Department of Conservation’s (DOC) plan to raise hut and campsite fees for most of New Zealand’s Great Walks.
DOC this week announced hut fees would rise 6 to 30 per cent, during peak season, for seven of the country’s nine flagship walks.
Hut fees on the Milford Track are set for the steepest rise, going from $54 a night to $70, while Kepler and Routeburn will both increase from $54 a night to $65.
West Coast Alpine Club president Jason Blair suggested the price rise could push Kiwis to tramp during winter, when they would need more skill to stay safe on walks like Milford Track.
‘‘Great Walks are a nice starting point for New Zealand families,’’ he said.
‘‘We definitely like to see financial barriers as a last resort. Our constitution says that we want to maintain and improve the access to the back country.’’
DOC recreation, tourism and heritage director Gavin Walker said the increases were part of the department’s first review into pricing for the Great Walks in five years and were designed to increase revenue by almost $900,000 per year, without significantly reducing visitor numbers.
‘‘More and more visitors to the Great Walks are international [about 60 per
"It needs to be affordable and accessible for locals as well as visitors."
cent] and the feedback we often get is how amazing they are and how cheap. The reality is we are charging $54 a night for the Milford Track – arguably the greatest walk in the world and this is well below the value that we are delivering for visitors.’’
‘‘Overall, the department has a $1.2 million shortfall per year on its Great Walks. On top of the high cost of removing all waste from these remote and unspoiled destinations, these tracks are well-formed and have higher standard huts and facilities making them more expensive to build and maintain.’’
Walker said there had been a 35 per cent increase in the of the Great Walks network over the past three years. The tracks hosted 120,000 people over the past year and the more popular Great Walks were operating at more than 90 per cent capacity over the summer period.
‘‘We want to encourage visitors to explore the wider range of equally spectacular tracks in the network and, for Kiwis in particular, to take advantage of tracks suitable for quieter times of year,’’ he said.
A new Great Walk through the West Coast’s Paparoa National Park is to be built as a memorial to the 29 men who died in the 2010 Pike River mine tragedy, and is due to open at the end of 2018.
Blair said it would be interesting to see how the 10th Great Walk would be priced as many of his club’s members were excited about the addition, and wanted to see it become viable and sustainable.
‘‘It is about balance between the user numbers on Great Walks and the need to make them accessible,’’ he said.
‘‘It needs to be affordable and accessible for locals as well as visitors.’’
Karamea’s Paul Murray, whose transport business services the Heaphy Track, believed the increase in Great Walk hut prices could increase the use of other walking trails.
‘‘I think a positive outcome of the increase in Great Walk hut prices will result in more people searching out and walking non-Great Walk tracks. Trampers can purchase annual back country passes and the hut fees are very low,’’ he said.
Trampers can expect the new fee structure to be rolled out in the coming weeks, with the new prices expected to be in place for next season’s bookings by May 16.