kids on Milford Track and whanganui Journey

I think kids have to be 12 yrs for the Milford, don't know about the others. Cheers, Peter.

I wonder if it might be one of the guiding companies that restricts ages of children. I can't comment from experience, but on the restrictions... DoC's fees page states that children -- 0 to 17 years -- are free to say in huts as long as there's a booking, although there's a recommendation attached that the Milford Track isn't recommended for children 10 or younger, and that children 14 and younger have to be accompanied by adults. http://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/tracks-and-walks/fiordland/fiordland/milford-track/plan-and-prepare/fees-and-bookings/ The Department of Conservation can't typically legally restrict people from walking the tracks (or leaving the tracks), but it can restrict camping and it can restrict use of the huts, so if there are hard-out restrictions on something like age then that's where they'll be. I don't think there are, however. If your two children have been in the outdoors lots and know how it works, and if you have good systems for making sure they can get from A to B in a remote place and stay warm and well fed and you can carry them and all their stuff if they refuse to walk (or be confident that they won't refuse) and so on, then it's probably fine. Great walks are fairly tame as far as outdoor overnight hiking is concerned and there tend to be people around, but it's still outdoors, weather can still be crappy, there's still hours of walking per day, you still have to carry everything you need for several days (unless you pay someone to fly it in) and they're still a big thing for anyone who's done nothing like it before. If your children are inexperienced or if you're inexperienced, it may be a bad idea.

Just to give some perpective on this tramping with children: In 1958, my sisters at the ages of 6 and 7, did a Doubtful Sound to Dusky Sound trip with our father, another young lad and a couple of other adults. Of course the deer would have chewed the bush to a very open state but the tracks weren't all that developed in those days. In those days, the Wilmot Pass road was just a track as the hydro stuff hadn't been developed. As a consequence my big sisters gained a love for tramping.