DOC warning bothers water taxi operator

http://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/news/6310305/DOC-warning-bothers-water-taxi-operator A Lake Rotoroa water taxi owner says the Conservation Department is discouraging people from walking a popular Nelson Lakes track because of a damaged bridge, which is impacting on her business. A bridge over the West Sabine river, on the Travers-Sabine route, was hit by flooding in early December. DOC say they have advised trampers of the damaged bridge so trampers can make informed decisions about crossing a major river. However, Kerry Simpson, owner of Rotoroa water taxi, said Conservation Department staff were needlessly scaring people off walking the track by not giving them all the available information about the river crossing. "We have information from trampers coming off the track all the time, saying they have had no problems crossing the river. Even after heavy rains, they've managed fine." Numbers walking the track over Christmas were lower than usual, with five cancellations in a row causing the business to suffer, she said. "It's been unbelievably slow over Christmas but starting to pick up again. I think the weather has put people off coming to the park, but it is really really disappointing that DOC haven't done anything to get through the peak season." Nelson Lakes DOC programme manager for visitor and historic assets Greg Carter understood the frustrations of businesses that had a short visitor window of October to April, but said putting in a new bridge took time. "It's a completely new engineering project, a 41-metre bridge worth $70,000 to $100,000." Work on the new bridge should begin in April, pending consent from Tasman District Council. Mr Carter said DOC did not advise trampers where they should or should not go. "I refute that we are scaring people away from walking the track," he said. "What we are saying is the bridge is no longer there and they need to be confident crossing a major river that rises very quickly with rain." "We can't say `go on, you'll be fine'. People have been walking for seven hours when they get there, they're tired and sometimes people do silly things." Trampers use water taxis at various points along the 80km tramp. Peter Kemp, owner of Nelson Lakes Shuttles, has put photos on his website of trampers crossing the river using part of the damaged bridge and a fallen log. He noticed a drop in visitor numbers this year and blamed it on the recession and people choosing not to walk the track. He recommended people stuck together to cross the river. Mr Carter said numbers visiting the park had been good this year, but more people were camping instead of tramping. Ad Feedback "People are spending time in the front country as opposed to the back country, partly because the Sabine bridge is out," he said. "Since bookings opened in November we've had 3358 visitors to the campgrounds and 955 to Angelus hut." - © Fairfax NZ News Next News story: Help needed to outfit students Marlborough Express HomepageSponsored links Share this page Email Facebook MySpace Digg StumbleUpon Delicious Reddit Linkedin Twitter