New Zealand DOC Great Walks, book early
I see and hear about it a lot. people come from overseas to walk one of the great walks, they either dont realise you have to book them to get on or they dont realise you need to book well in advance at certain times of the year,
or they look online in advance and see loads of spare places and decide to make their decision about where and when they will walk when they get there,
If you turn up at a doc office the day before you want to walk them in peak season, you're going to be out of luck
the milford track books out months in advance, the only people getting on the track with late notice are the very few who get places from late cancellations or no shows...
what then happens is they look around for other scenic tramps to do, and they usually end up doing tracks that don't require booking in the area, especially around fiordland and aspiring parks those other tracks are overflowing with people because of the scenario i described, you wont' be guaranteed a bunk or even a tent space at the small doc campsites, you wont even be guaranteed being able to sleep inside the hut it could be so full...
or they end up on trips where the facilities are a lot less than they expect, basic huts that are too hot or too cold, no stoves. maybe no mattresses, or on very rough tracks that take good navigation skills to follow or even find which is what a good majority of the tracks in nz can be like.... the great walk tracks are the exception rather than the rule...
https://booking.doc.govt.nz/
That's life ...huh. You can't make everyone prepare well. Thins out the crowd. Imagine if it was easier for people to get what they expect. The crowds would swell in numbers more than we'd ever want.
It seems to me that for most people a holiday like this is about one in a dozen. Most of the other holidays would be on a beach or in a hotel. If they experience hardship a little it keeps it all in perspective.
After all it's a balance we want isn't it? Promoting best practice is good but too many people getting out there spoils it.
Perhaps we are slowly going down a certain road but the slower the better i say.
I think expectations can also partly have to do with the global backpacking trail.
If you look at some of the other places where western backpackers visit around the world on their global holidays, you'd find that comparable activities in many other countries (eg. SE Asia, South America, etc) are often much more organised and controlled. Sometimes parks can't be entered except where the government approves it as okay and safe. Leaving an approved track/trail might be disallowed for safety reasons, or it's illegal to enter at all without a guide, everything potentially dangerous has handrails, weather is often very predictable, and townships and help and food and hundreds or thousands of other people and (these days) cellphone coverage are never far away.
Then you get to New Zealand where a typical multi-day "hike" involves being dropped at the end of an empty road with a sign pointing inland. It's great if that's what you're expecting, but potentially very dangerous if you've just come from something very different and haven't properly done your research. Hence the Great Walk policy: directing as many backpacking tourists as possible towards a small selection of routes that DoC attempts to make kindergarten safe, just in case.
It's also about providing facilities to cater for the numbers too. The more the visitors the more poo and other rubbish. Last i visited the Rees-Dart there were flush toilets at the huts. That's not even a 'great walk'.
there are sort of "in between" walks like the rees dart where they get teh no's through to pay for better facilities. they put the money into the huts but dont have to spend the big bucks to upgrade the track tomake them great walks, or fork out for helicoptering in gas firewood or coal..
thers a few flash huts going in, big upgrade to mckellar hut and greenstone hut on the greenstone. the track is great walk standard, maintenance is subsidised by the guided walkers.
but aspiring park now has a blanket ban on upgrading accomodation and with the capping of no's in the peak season on the rees dart it will put more pressure on other tracks in the area...
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| Forum | Tracks, routes, and huts |
|---|---|
| Started by | waynowski |
| On | 15 January 2012 |
| Replies | 4 |
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