Portering gear in New Zealand

I thought the same on reading original thread - plenty of cashed up tourists doing the great walks every year, there could be money to be made carting gear for them. Would be perfect for those not wanting to pay thousands for a guided trek, and not keen or able to lug a big pack around.

Before you go down this exciting new job prospect have a close look at the new adventure tourism rules. It appears compliance is an expensive nightmare and lots of small operators are closing up shop instead of even trying to comply. I can give an example of a local 4wd trainer who was a one man band. His business falls under the rules and compliance was going to be about $3000 and had to be redone every couple of years. Add to that the fact that there are only 2 certification companies and one of those has gone bankrupt.

Also you would need some sort of commercial concession to operate a business over the Great Walks as well. I imagine any application would be vigorous opposed by those already operating on the walks, albeit offering a somewhat different, more expensive service to porterage. In Tasmania Wes Moule http://www.wesmoule.com/wes/ provides a service to take in food and equipment drops to expeditions. Slightly different idea though. On a facetious note though, how do you tell the difference between a commercial porter and your long lost kiwi cousin who's offered to take you tramping?

Or even: I have a contracted personal assistant, can I go tramping with them?

"On a facetious note though, how do you tell the difference between a commercial porter and your long lost kiwi cousin who's offered to take you tramping?" That turns out to be easy. Money changes hands. The law was needed but it needed a lot of fine tuning before it will be actual workable for all but those organisations of a substantial enough size to be able to offset the extra costs. Even a 4wd club running a fundraiser tag along or taking passengers for charity x is breaking the law. Thats why you dont see so many of these now and wont be seeing any in the future. 4wd clubs can get round the law if they only run trips for members and any money stays in the club. Visitors have to join for the duration of any trip to comply. Tramping clubs get round it by only charging a cost to get to the venue not the trip itself (hut fees paid direct to doc via tickets etc) so the club does not collect money

There's a guy who used to advertise in the FMC bulletin for carrying people's stuff, exchanging car keys, cooking for them, and anything else practical. I forget where, except probably SI. Concession fees? Going from DOC's website it'd probably be a 'conforming concession' as far as DOC is concerned. http://www.doc.govt.nz/about-doc/concessions-and-permits/concessions/applying-for-a-concession/make-a-concession-application/apply-for-a-conforming-concession/ That'd probably be a $400 processing fee first up, then every anniversary another $300 management fee. Plus $10/adult-client per day (min $200 per year). All exclusive of GST. If you're just carrying someone's pack without guiding them them maybe it'd be treated as something else, but I'm not sure what.

Izogi - that guy is Derry Kingston who still operates over the Heaphy Track and is still advertising in the FMC mag. He's now in his early 70s, I think, had a triple by-pass, and has done the track over 300 times. He drops off the person's car at Karamea and RUNS back through the track exchanging keys as he passes the trampers. A couple of years ago he walked/ran from the Karamea pub, via the Heaphy, to the Collingwood pub in just under 24 hours!!! A legend around here! Also here is www.kahurangiwalks.co.nz who employs local trampers as 'sherpas' to carry food on either the Heaphy or Abel Tasman.

there was a programme on tv3 about the outdoor adventure ccompliance problem is looks like there is a cutoff time to get your compliance by but the one organisation doing it has only audited ten percent of companies and time is running out http://www.3news.co.nz/Adventure-tourism-Are-we-any-safer/tabid/1771/articleID/343185/Default.aspx

Its yet another case of government coming up with what should be a good idea then putting it in place without making sure its possible to implement in the timeframe then refusing to amend it because that would be an admission of failure in an election year. Next terms policy like this is a compulsory change to electric cars for everyone. There will be a 6 month change over time. Of course no one has thought about where these electric cars will be supplied from or the fact that there is not enough spare electricity to power all these cars not withstanding the other law that will force the decommissioning of all fossil fuel power stations at the same time. Thats how government works. Dont matter which government.