It can be one or more private companies -- they'd just need the appropriate endorsements, cooperation and guidance from DoC, etc, so people actually use it and so it's effective.
It's a tricky discussion. Appreciate the debate.
So you'd do away with all business in any way related to the conservation estate just in case it uses its influence to change policy in its own commercial interests?
I'm sure there are cases where this is a risk but I don't see an inherent danger with a business model based on optionally recording intentions of people without reliable contacts and raising an alarm where appropriate. Certainly no more dangerous than the possibility that the government itself could do something annoying all on its own.
I don't think DoC should be actively looking out for people who should be able to be responsible for themselves, and to me it actually seems like a sort of case where commercial intervention to provide a service some people might want could potentially make sense.
there are at least 700 rental kayaks in abel tasman park, plus people bringing their own
literally dozens of commercial boats, a lot of them with high power noisy outboard motors that ru up and down the coast all day long, outboard motors are a big part of the background noise in the park during the day on the coast, throughout spring summer and into autumn.
countless people bring their own boats into the park
to me abel tasman doesnt feel like a national park, it feels like any outdoor area adjacent to a major city,
i can get that experience any day of the year without going to a national park, in fact i'd argue the waters around auckland are a lot quiter in a lot of places than abel tasman as there is a lot more coastline for them to spread out in... some places near auckland are far far more peaceful than abel tasman....
"people go into the national parks to get away from the commercial world."
In that case with the idea I suggested, anyone including yourself would be perfectly free to find their own trusted contact and not pay a commission for a service provider (who doesn't operate on public land anyway) to care about their safe return, and I expect most people would. Anyone they met who was using it would show no signs of using it unless it came up in conversation. It's the people for whom reliable trusted contacts aren't available that I'm thinking about. DoC wouldn't have to have any more to do with this than it has to do with an anonymous business in Texas that monitors SPOT beacon SOS calls or the various retailers who hire out EPIRBs, but it could improve things if DoC and the Ministry of Tourism endorsed and cooperated with such a system so that fewer people would enter the back-country without reliable trusted contacts who understood what they were doing.
I realise that businesses *in* parks and businesses that have a stake in the make-up of the conservation estate sometimes have a negative side and get in people's way and sometimes press for their own interests at a park's and everyone else's expense, but I don't see what it has to do with an optional trusted contact business that doesn't impose on parks at all. Can you suggest why this idea is somehow bad without alluding to examples of a thousand guiding and kayaking and mining businesses and airlines whose operations and motives seem largely unrelated? Sorry, I'm just trying desperately to stay on topic in this thread.
Unfortunately, DoC have stated it's no longer their policy to manage people's intentions.
For better or for worse, they've washed their hands of it.
"It is no longer the department policy to hold visitor intentions and there is no change to our practice of informing, "where possible" hazards to visitors and the risks they may encounter." - Kingsley Timpson, Area Manager Waimakariri, DoC.
extremely sorry, i was ranting on the wrong thread, I"ve deletd my posts and put them on the correct one as one post, it was to do with doc and air nz doing a commercial deal..
(slaps self around head)
http://www.police.govt.nz/news/release/31827.html
Search under way for overdue student trampers
they were due out by wednesday at the latest yet an alert wasnt raised by their friends till saturday...
http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/auckland/news/nbnat/1301663617-Missing-trampers-found
Missing trampers found
Walked out of the bush 3.30pm Sunday, after helicopter & ground searchers were deployed.
Praised for making some good decisions, such as not crossing a river, but criticised for lax preparedness & in-attention to weather forecast & NOT LEAVING WRITTEN INTENTIONS.
Well, the 'tell a friend' system worked eventually, but 4-days overdue after a significant snow event sounds pretty uncomfortable.
