foreigners pay double on southern great walks

upshot is they wanted to try and cut the no's trying to compete for bookings and chose to charge overseas visitors more.... they could have put a nz quota on. thing is, when you charge more you're then pitching to a new market, the ones wanting more exclusivity and a more premier experience, some people already turn up to the great walks expecting accommodation that has food or prepared meals for sale, or that there is a shower and fully heated accommodation, the bunk rooms are not heated and some bunk rooms are in seperate buildings, i see a lot of foreigners with the thinnest synthetic cheap summer bags, in a place where it can snow in summer. the hut rangers all have stories to tell about the unprepared... the question is will people book now expecting more for their money since they have to pay twice as much now? the debate now will be about is it worth the money... i've seen comments so far that are polarised, those that are happy to pay the fare all talk about seeing it as contributing to the conservation infrastructure of NZ and worth the price... the negative ones just that its a rip off and discrimination and a money grab.

YHA went through a similar thing. When I was young most of the hostels were volunteer run and 3 or 4 pounds a night to stay at. In the morning there was a posted list of chores that everyone who'd stayed divvied up amongst themselves. Prices were cheap and the concept of looking after to hostel in return for cheap fees worked. Visitors bought into the concept and kept the place cleaned. Now the hostels cost the price of a hotel and half the people staying don't even feel they should have to wash their own dishes, never mind sweep the floors, launder the sheets or clean the dunnys. Increased prices lead to increased expectations, and a decreased sense of responsability.

I would think the level of non-compliance amongst those not prepared to pay higher fees will go way up and necessitate counter measures. I'm guessing I'll have to get used to being buzzed by a DOC surveillance drone next time I'm sitting on Conical Hill enjoying the sunset... Anyone done the Abel Tasman recently? I was talking to a young German fellow who said they were already doing this on the Abel Tasman - A DOC boat cruising along the coast in the evening with a drone poking into all the likely non-authorised camping spots to spot rouge campers. Some Great Walks have relatively easy legal (more than 500m of the track) camping possibilities, with the way it's so easy to disseminate information nowdays, I can see these spots being publicised and getting hammered and covered in shit and rubbish before too long.

i've seen people day walking the kepler track because they couldnt get hut bookings... others because they didnt want to pay.. but stealth camping will go up. its been a problem for a while on the routeburn and kepler.. and they just dump their rubbish behind, i caught one group who camped at harris saddle trying to dump their rubbish at mackenzie hut, i told them to take it out, and found it dumped in the toilet, massive bag of food packaging. backpackers....

Personally I find the future possibility of preferential booking for New Zealanders to be more interesting than the differential pricing, and possibly more likely to make a useful difference if you're a New Zealand resident who's really struggled to see some of these places. Given the pricing things's happening, though, it'll be interesting to see if it actually makes a difference and what that difference is.

I went out with the Mrs this weekend to the St James Walkway - she was reluctant to try anything harder as she hasn't been out in snow before. There was a group of 8 Irish tourists (presumably) there - all felt free to use large amounts of coal to heat the hut as well as using the loo which is almost full and will need to be emptied soon at cost to DoC, - however they did not put anything in the hut ticket box nor did they provide details of any backcountry passes. As others have mentioned, there are somewhat similar stories in locations such as Blue Lake and along Te Araroa where increased investment and expenditure is necessary despite only minimal income for DoC at that location. The Great Walks, IMO, are only part of the issue, and the response to focus only on these is a bit head in the sand. I know of people who have been unable to afford or secure a booking at Abel Tasman and have just gone elsewhere, shifting the burden somewhere else (I also know a guy who ignored the lack of booking and was made to walk two days out immediately by the ranger - he somehow feels hard done by!) Personally, I think a border levy should be imposed regardless of the split pricing currently being trialed - our 'clean green' image draws millions here but little money is directly paid to those who have to maintain said image and even if visitors don't go to a DoC hut, they still experience our scenery and our wildlife, which is managed (in some direct or indirect way) by DoC.

Well at least it's a trial, as I can't see this ending well. No one likes to be ripped off, and charging someone twice the price is bound to make them think they are being. A fairer method would been a generally tourist departure tax, which need be much smaller and raise much more revenue. Instead I suspect they'll be a small number prepared to pay extra, like those willing to pay for private guided walks, yet some of these will disappointed to learn they won't getting that service. Many though will either seek out Great Walks without the double charge, or other huts and walks putting extra pressure on those instead, with very minimal increase in revenue, or go elsewhere.

It's clearly discrimination. You can only hope common sense prevails. If you want to have tourism you have to learn to cope with all the trappings. It's like so many things in life. It's a road you started on without fully knowing the outcome and all you can do is control the speed.

I think the differential pricing is fantastic and well overdue. It will have the result making visitors pay what they should be paying - and this still only contributes to actual costs of running these facilities. A consequence of this could also include reduced visitor numbers and pressure on these main facilities. I dont see many tourists being diverted to other walks as many of them are probably only told about (or know about) the big "great walks." This will give more space for kiwis to be able to book these facilities. Note that the "anti" messaging is primarily coming thru the media from the powerful interests that have millions of dollars tied up in tourism interests for these walks. Note that they stay conveniently silent on the thousands of dollars they charge tourists for their guided walk (and similar) services. The increased DOC fees are a drop in the ocean compared to the tourism operator charges and all the other high prices tourists are charged in NZ for pretty much everything. In my view direct charging is the way to go as it ensures that the funds go straight to DOC. NZ Govt is still a bit too clunky (ie: Govt Depts still dont all play well together) IMO to sort out and manage how a general visitor tax could be distributed and theres too much of risk those funds could be diverted into the Crown black hole for other things rather than conservation

It will certainly cement our reputation as an agricultural-tourism economy. "If you can't milk 'em, fleece'em."