Tourists

because a lot of them are ill prepared, and some need rescuing or die because of that. we get all sorts here, we get the full range of foreigners, from the very experienced who can handle themselves in the outdoors to those who just wear street clothes, jeans t shirts in the mountains where the weather can be like winter any time of the year

95% are fine and no problem The other 5% more than make up for that statistic. Really the problem is how New Zealand is perceived by some overseas and the guid books dont really help. They see New Zealand as a small island in the sub tropics and look at the trails and see that even our highest mountain at 12000 feet (4000 metres) is not that high in the scheme of things. All the above is true but it forgets that that 12000 foot mountain is less than 200km from east and west coast they forget that the prevailing wind has no interruption from its source 1000s of km away and that when it turns south which it does quite regularly it comes straight from the Antarctic ice shelf. Just to make it worse a lack of nearby weather stations makes weather forecasting a nightmare. Things that are ok in what seams perfectly similar conditions overseas might be potentially deadly here. Even our trails are different. Apart from great walks and a few other high use trails most of our trails are little more than a marker every couple of trees. That marker is often completely covered in lichen etc. The number of tourist who come here thinking they are experienced hikers when all they have done is trails that are fully built to high standard with tramping huts that include hot showers and a cook at every stop and that is how they prepare is a problem. I know those are the 5% but 5% of the number of tourists coming here and tramping is still a very large number of people If you are experienced on true bush tracks. If you know how to shelter in a summer blizzard If you can cook your own meals with your own cooking gear You will be fine here and most welcome. You will not be part of the 5% that we worry about

some have little or no navigation skills. and a lot of our tracks you have to look hard and or navigate to stay on the trail. it may not be a followable track, just the odd marker on a tree and theres lots of vegetation over growing the track, people come with shoes with little tread and take on trails that can be steep and slippery and they fall and get injured... it can be very cold and wet even in summer, not everyone has wet weather clothes. or they only have a raincoat and no over trousers..., they get wet and may not have a change of dry clothes..

i would say its A LOT MORE THAN 5% THAT ARE A PROBLEM i loose count of how many people dont have the right clothing.. endless people wearing jeans and shoes with little tread in the mountains... or no waterproof jackets, they think their jacket is waterproof but its not, they just assumed and never checked when they bought the jacket that it was waterproof.. and they find themselves soaked through in cold wet weather. a lot of walker are lucky they dont end up with hypothermia or dead, i think because a lot of our walks are relatively short compared to some places like in america is all that saves a lot more people from getting hypothermia or dying in the outdoors. they are able to get to a road end and a warm car or accommodation shortly before hypothermia takes over them....

100000 tourists tramp in nz each year if 5000 get in trouble thats 5% 5000 is a lot of oops

and a lot lot more scrape through, lucky they didnt need to get rescued. or lucky they didnt die

i was walking up a hill the other day, it was a hot, sunny day, a chinese tourist was walking up the hill wearing waterproof overtrousers. just shows people buy and use clothes randomly with little understanding of what the various different types of clothing are for... they wear down jackets, wind breakers and softshells in rain storms, none of which are waterproof. the outdoor shops dont help things either selling people gear without finding out what the intended use of it is while they take the money from the tourists... if you're into fashion, then i suggest you take a good look at what you are going to wear in the nz mountains because fashionable clothing often has very little to do with practicality here.

Those down jackets are a worry. They are a current fashion item for school kids to be worn all year round. I do own one but cant wear it as its too hot.

"Why?" Some of it is, of course, good old fashioned patriotism.