Franz Josef back on the flight path
New Zealand’s 23 Great Rides traverse spectacular landscape and bring $1bn to the economy, but with a looming funding shortfall and increasing costs, should users pay? Joanne Naish reports.
Flights to Franz Josef are back on the tourism menu of one glacier-landing adventure organisation.
INFINITE Group has made its return to one of the South Island’s most southern glaciers after a 10-year hiatus from bookable flight packages.
It’s the only operator offering helicopter landings on Tasman Glacier, and provides opportunities at Fox Glacier, so bringing back flights to Franz Josef Glacier was a no-brainer for Adam Joyce, the chief executive of INFINITE group.
Joyce said returning to Franz Josef had been on the “roadmap” for the company since it purchased Skydive Franz Josef in 2018.
“The past few years slowed our plans, but we are now excited to re-launch operations from Franz Josef in the form of INFINITE Franz and Fox Helicopters.
“The cherry on top being that world-exclusive glacier landing on the famous Tasman Glacier.
“This is an incredibly exciting development which further entrenches our investment in this amazing part of New Zealand.”
Joyce said operations had begun with only helicopters as the company built its way back to ski planes.
“Yes, we do have plans to bring the infamous Ski Plane back to Franz Josef,’ he said. ”So, we can offer our amazing Ski Plane and Helicopter Combo, The Ultimate Alpine Experience from both Aoraki/Mt Cook and Franz Josef. Watch this space.“
Customers will be able to enjoy a 30-minute Tasman experience helicopter flight with a glacier landing, as well as jump from a plane at 13,000 feet with experts at Skydive Franz and Fox, he said.
For more than 65 years the company’s Mount Cook Ski Planes and Helicopters business has brought experiences across Aoraki Mount Cook National Park, with landings on the Tasman Glacier.
The group’s chief operating officer James Meldrum said Franz and Fox glacier regions provide the most spectacular scenery to fly through.
“The snow landing on the Tasman Glacier is the icing on the cake, as it provides a different, but equally stunning scenery to that of the West Coast,” Meldrum said.
The Government has committed to installing new e-bike chargers on Great Rides – the network of world class cycle trails that showcase some of the country’s most amazing scenery – but many in the industry say these are unnecessary and the money would be better spent on maintaining and extending the network.
The 23 Great Rides include 13 routes on the South Island, including the 85km Old Ghost Road on the West Coast, Marlborough’s 73.5km Queen Charlotte Track, the West Coast Wilderness Trail – which encompasses 133km of breathtaking scenery - and the 60km St James Cycle Trail in Canterbury.
A briefing to the incoming Tourism and Hospitality Minister says in mid-2023 the Government cut the annual funding for the Great Rides to $3 million a year, as part of a rapid savings exercise. It had previously provided $8m a year but after the reduction last year the difference was made up with a further $5m from the International Visitor Levy.
The briefing says $8m was “unlikely to be sufficient to enhance the Great Rides network but may be enough to continue ongoing necessary maintenance”.
Trail enhancements can include works to improve the surface, gradient and user experience such as shelters and toilets and improvements to reduce general maintenance costs.
The Government has spent about $122m on the 23 Great Rides across New Zealand, along with about $60m of community co-funding since 2009.
Maintenance is co-funded by Government, local councils and small bands of volunteers tirelessly working to raise funds. The investment is worth about $1bn to local economies from the 1m people who use the Great Rides every year.
The briefing by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to the Minister said he had choices about how to fund the Great Rides. “We will provide you with further advice on this, including on options to raise revenue,” it said. It cited international examples including Venice’s recently enacted visitor charge and a charge in the United States for accessing national parks. It said a “suite of tools” was required to ensure users were making a fair contribution and said providing councils and the Department of Conservation with additional tools to both charge and manage demand would have significant benefits.
Rotorua cyclist Grant Utteridge said he travelled to the West Coast especially to experience its Great Rides. He said he was blown away after completing the Old Ghost Road, the Paparoa Track and part of the West Coast Wilderness Trail on his e-bike. “It’s fantastic. Unbelievable. They are amazing assets. Off the planet good. World class,” he said.
He hadn’t noticed any signs asking for donations on the trail, but was willing to pay for the experience.
He said he understood the lack of funds, due to being on the trust for the Whakarewarewa Forest Loop Great Ride.
“Everything costs money and doesn’t run on the smell of an oily rag. It’s got to be a collaboration of everybody. I think people need to pay but how do you police it?”
Geoff Gabites of Cycle Journeys said he was not in favour of Government spending money to install e-bike chargers.
“We trialled e-bike chargers on the Alps2Ocean and the overwhelming feedback was ‘why would we pay $5 when we can charge our bikes at our accommodation. We don’t want it’,” he said.
He said the money would be better spent on increasing the Government contribution of $8m which had not changed since 2016 and was not in line with inflation.
“The question remains about ongoing funding. $8m is not enough across 23 Great Rides. Cyclone Gabrielle cleaned out the emergency fund and some so there’s no money for emergency repair work. There’s no money for new trails when some haven’t got finished yet,” he said. “The funding shortfall is really really hard. Should the Government fully fund the Great Rides? It’s a hard sell when the Government needs to look after the education and health system and teachers and police officers are struggling,“he said.
He said it would be too hard to put a compulsory charge on users but his company had started charging riders a $3 luggage levy per day three years ago with all the money going back to the trails for maintenance costs. So far, it had donated $126,868 to the Alps 2 Ocean, Great Taste and West Coast Wilderness Trail.
Friends of Alps 2 Ocean Incorporated spokesperson Adair Craik said the donations had been invaluable.
Cost cutting was not unexpected after Covid but heavily impacted cycle trails.
“The model the previous National Government’s provided was that all trails had to be available free to the public. The cost cuts certainly put this model under the spotlight but, how does a trail make it user pays?”
“The logistics of setting up pay stations, perhaps having a turnstile, then fencing 310kms of trail is completely ludicrous.” She said e-bikes had opened up a whole new world of opportunity for people to ride longer trails with ease.
“We often hear that many of these people haven’t ridden a bike since school,” she said.
West Coast Wilderness Trail manager Jackie Gurden said installing e-bike chargers on the trail was unnecessary because people charged their batteries overnight at their accommodation along the way.
“Who’s going to pay for them and how is it going to work? Right now there’s not a huge need and we have more important priorities like fixing up parts of the trail and high priority maintenance,” she said.
Westland District Council sets aside a budget of $110,000 for maintenance excluding any weather related events, which are common on the West Coast.
Gurden said users were already paying on the trail through voluntary donations made to cycle tour operators of $10 a day per each rider.
The trail was a huge success story for the West Coast communities, she said, with more than 15,000 visitors bringing a direct return of about $15m a year and another $50m in indirect returns. “About 80% of visitors surveyed come to the Coast especially for the trail, people who otherwise wouldn’t have come here and they spend more than $1000 each here,” she said. “Each year the trail returns cash of around one and a half times what it cost to build the entire trail,”
Both Kumara and Ross were in decline before the cycle trail was established and were now growing. Kumara now boasted several new businesses including the rebuilt Theatre Royal Hotel which had been considered for demolition.She said large numbers of locals also used the trail for fitness, to walk their dogs, to get to town and even to school and back as an off road and safe option. “The trail can be viewed in the same way we traditionally used a gymnasium or a sports field. It is a new form of community recreation.”
Tourism Minister Matt Doocey said he recently had a chance to experience Rotorua’s Whakarewarewa Forest Loop Great Ride.
“I saw first-hand why the Great Rides are such a draw card for both domestic and international tourists,” he said.
It was clear how important the Great Rides were in bringing both visitors and investment to New Zealand and creating jobs.
“Demand for environmentally friendly tourism is expected to increase in the coming years, and I see the Great Rides as a significant draw-card as travellers become more and more environmentally aware,” he said.
He confirmed the Government had committed to installing e-bike chargers along the Great Rides to make the trails as accessible as possible for different levels of fitness. He said officials were working through options with announcements on design, cost and installation to be made in due course.
He said while the economy was “in a fragile state” the financial burden on taxpayers needed to be reduced, he said. “With that in mind, we need to ensure visitors pay a fair proportion of the costs they generate rather than leaving those costs to be borne by New Zealand rate and taxpayers. Ideally, we would have sustainable funding solutions that ensure maintenance and investment in world class visitor experiences.”
Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment Investment Management Performance manager David Talbot said Central Government, through the New Zealand Cycle Trails Fund supported the ongoing maintenance and development of the Great Rides including extreme event recovery, day-to-day maintenance and operational costs.
He said the priority was now maintaining existing trails and not expanding or building new Great Rides. This was due to cost pressures exacerbated by rebuilding trails after extreme weather events, which had cost about $5m since January 2023.