Those new Great Walks
Also on the new Great Walks, I queried DOC about the apparent lack of direct public consultation for where the new Great Walks are going.
The process is published at http://www.doc.govt.nz/get-involved/have-your-say/all-consultations/2017/selecting-new-great-walks/
The public was asked for ideas, but that's about the end of it. An external evaluation panel picks a bunch of the ideas, submitters get to submit a fuller proposal, and then the external evaluation panel chooses between them.
According to http://www.doc.govt.nz/news/media-releases/2018/new-great-walks-initial-submissions/ , the panel is made from FMC, the NZRA, DOC, and FOUR separate tourism entities. (Tourism NZ, NZ Maori Tourism, Air New Zealand and Tourism Industry Aotearoa!)
It's not like they can put Great Walks anywhere without at least some people having issues, but IMHO there should at least be an opportunity for the public to submit on the full proposals before the external evaluation panel makes its final decision.
When I queried DOC, the response wasn't promising. It reads as if they hadn't really thought of that, or didn't want to think of it, and that at best they'll consider something like it when this happens in future.
> As you are aware we have recently run a public engagement process to identify potential walks that could be added to our Great Walks network. This process saw us inviting initial proposals for walks to be assessed by an external independent panel and discussed with iwi.
> Community support forms part of the criteria to select new Great Walks and any impact on communities and current walkers will be considered with each application. We hope to invite community feedback to allow members of the public to have their say on potential new walks in the near future.
> We are currently working with the new Minister of Conservation to confirm the approach to the next phase, and the timing of further decisions. Once this has been done, the next steps and decisions will be communicated and we will look to invite feedback from the public.
If you're concerned about this, and where the Great Walks might be placed by a bunch of tourism entities if others on the panel don't have reason to question it, I think it's important to write to the Minister of Conservation ASAP and express concern that there's no opportunity in the process to comment on the proposals. She's probably the best bet in getting the process adapted to enable more public input.
51 comments
i think it was faster for the paparoa track, seemed to me that one started building pretty quickly from when i first heard about it, which i dont think would have been much more than a year ago if that
> DOC have only just called for submissions - being ideas for ideas for locations for new great walks. Very early days.
Can you elaborate? The submission period opened last September and closed at the end of November. In early Feb, DOC published the short-list of 30 proposals.
The published process has the original submitters being asked to develop clearer proposals, and then the External Evaluation Panel decides which two get the nod. There's nothing in the formal published process to allow for any further direct public input, except for the relatively vague promise to consult with key community groups. People were only ever asked what they think should be a Great Walk. There's apparently been no plan to ask people what they think shouldn't be a Great Walk.
I know DOC's been slow in the past, but I don't think we should presume it will be this time. There's a big push for this from the tourism industry. Four of the seven identities on the Evaluation Panel represent tourism interests and one of the three that remain is DOC itself. The decision to have two more Great Walks has already been made. The process for choosing them is well underway. Tourism businesses are campaigning to have DOC spend money on a Great Walk near them. The plan is to have them completed and operating by the summer of 2021. It's just a question of where they go.
the days of building major tracks by hand are gone,
they use diggers and explosives on those new tracks now and they dont have to be a great walk...
the routeburn has been widened all the way up to the flats hut.... you can probably get a quad bike up there now, if you can get across the side streams that don't have upgraded bridges its like a farm road, most of the bridges have been upgraded as well
as i said, i don't think they've mucked around on the Pyke track in the paparoa's...
you have a major mountain bike track built to a high standard going 80k's into kahurangi now on the Old Ghost rd.
and the trend is to close lesser used and maintained tracks while they open up the expensive tracks and exclude everyone who isnt booked on them from overnighting anywhere near them....
this is definitely not tramping as you've known it in the past, there is a major trend thats changing the face of tramping, and its showing no signs yet of changing under Labour....
"and the trend is to close lesser used and maintained tracks while they open up the expensive tracks".
Thank goodness Permolat is bucking this trend. Other areas are starting to do this too. I think the Kawekas are moving ahead very well.
"and the trend is to close lesser used and maintained tracks while they open up the expensive tracks".
Not sure I agree with this statement in general, even beyond the Pale of permolat country. 10 years ago, every track I visited was fast-returning to bush, and each time I'd visit it it'd be worse. In the last 2-3 years things seem to have turned around. Those lesser-used tracks around Otago at least seem finally to be getting a haircut: Humboldt, Earls, Eyres, Young-McKerrows, ...
Certainly not where I'd like us to be for the standard of track maintenance, but definitely pulling back from the brink.
plenty of tracks in the north island being closed right across the island, look at how trampers had to protest at moves to remove various huts, DOC wanted to remove half the huts in the Ruahines and its taken the public to step in to change DOC's plan or takeover managing some of the hut's themselves..
DOC issued a statement a while back saying they were assessing if they were going to remove more huts if they decided they werent being used enough.
Paparoa track was first proposed several years ago. And it's taken longer to develop than expected; it was originally slated for opening this year, but I see it's been pushed back to next year.
I think the Tararuas are safe from Great Walk status.
Weather is unpredictable anywhere in the country, but probably not the same extent as the Tararuas.
I can't see any of the major players wanting to deal with the increased risk of total tramping greenhorns being caught out on the tops.
So I'm not worried about the Tararuas becoming a GW at all.
Greenstone/Caples, on the other hand.....
I reckon they're just waiting to jump through the hoops on this one. Think of the 'benefits':
*Not a whole lot of financial cost to bring them up to GW standard.
*Will relieve at least some of the pressure on the Big 3.
*Is a loop option, from two separate points, so transport operators can get two slices of the pie, or the pie can spread amongst more operators (Queenstown based/Te Anau based).
*Compared to other places (like the Tararuas), a very safe track.
So I'll be surprised if G/C DOESN'T become a GW.
1
Probably true but Kaitoke Holdsworth is taking a hamering from the number of users and is a lowland track all the way Also plenty of easy exits and a few side options
the tararua great walks proposals are mainly on river routes and low saddles,
I"ve spent a lot of time in the tararuas and fiordland, and fiorldlands weather would be even worse than the tararuas, you name the day of teh year and its snowed and had a major southerly through with some of teh heaviest rain in the world and severe winds, and they have three great walks, two which are above the bushline for long stretches.
the ranger on the great walks in fiordland will recommend to people not to proceed above the bushline if they decide the weather is bad enough.
they've probably saved countless people from potential hypothermia or worse over the decades...
they will organise extra buses to pick people up if they have to turn back early, i've been on the tracks when this has happened more than once...
they will recommend people dont proceed sometimes when it is passable, i've proceeded when they recommended against it, but you needed decent gear and a fair bit of nerve to cope with the severe wind and stinging rain. frankly those conditions are beyond most people doing the great walks.
i went to pick up tickets for the kepler one day, the forecast was pretty bad, but there was enough time for me to get to luxmore hut before the storm hit... the doc person at the counter refused to give me my tickets and said i had to wait for a briefing in the morning about the weather..
i had to argue with her i was experienced enough to cope with the forecast conditions and i wasnt waiting for the briefing and demanded my tickets which she in the end reluctantly gave me, anyway everyone made it to the hut before the storm hit in the evening and winds of 150k hit the hut that night and it rocked like a train all night. not atypical mountain storm weather.... DOC err on the side of caution on the great walks. although another time they let people across the tope and one person collapsed with hypothermia and had to be carried to a shelter, numerous people saw this , panicked and dropped their packs along th e ridge and made a b line for iris burn hut and had to climb back up for their packs the next day
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The track to Powell hut is basically a stairway to heaven. I can do the holdsworth jumbo circuit in six and a half hours. It is nothing like the rest of the Tarrys. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realise that there would be a few people eyeing that up as a potential great walk one day.
Add the holdsworth to kaitoke and you've got a potential to boost tourism in the wairarapa. I'm sure some clown out there would love something like that in the region.
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Forum | Tracks, routes, and huts |
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Started by | izogi |
On | 28 February 2018 |
Replies | 50 |
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