RE: IN THE NEWS

120 people are being airlifted off Milford Track because of flooding!

http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/3606126/New-Angelus-Hut-ready-to-receive-visitors Angelus Hut is finished!

12 trampers to be flown out from the Routeburn due to flooding. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10641084

I don't know. When I was a lad I was always taught that when it rains you just move onto half rations, sit tight and read a book. The rivers will all go down very quickly when the rain stops and then you can move. I guess everyones timetables and schedules are so tight these days that an extra day or two in the hills is paramount to disaster.

i allways have a couple days up my sleave in case i get stuck and some extra food i nearly had to use the lot on the Hollyford in March,thinking about what has happend now the Hollyford is one place i would not wont to be right now Lindsay

The up side of an PLB is that no news is good news. If its rained and Im late and that bloody thing hasnt been set off then I must be waiting for a river to go down no need to panic. I am back to doing what we used to do without the pressure of timetables and schedules.

I sort of thought DoC would have been more concerned with the integrity of their booking system than with flying out those at risk of rationing their meals. Having the infrastructure and budget set aside probably makes it practical to do this kind of thing even near the end of the booking season. It's fair enough to sit tight, but I'm not sure a typical person DoC markets the Milford or Routeburn towards would have considered it to be a likely possibility let alone prepared for it (despite all the warnings and suggestions). I'm all for babying people in those settings. :)

I am suprised and think it a little inappropriate for DOC to have a budget to fly people out of warm dry huts because of bad weather, which incidentally is a totally predictable and natural event. If it is a genuine emergency then it becomes a SAR operation and the Police or ACC pick up the tab. I would rather see any surplus DOC money spent on preserving native species or pest control.

Well in principle I agree, and obviously this is all just my own thoughts. The only Great Walk I've actually visited has been Abel Tasman, so maybe I don't have the full story. Of countless people, we met 3 in 4 days who weren't international backpackers, one of whom was a DoC worker and the other 2 were a couple of fun old guys at the very end. From what I've seen in general, though, I suppose I've just ceased to see Great Walks as being an independent experience of self-responsibility so much as a managed and self-guided tour full of high-end well serviced facilities and gas heaters that people will leave blasting all day and all night because they can't be bothered to find warmer clothes. That's how they're marketed in some respects (by tourist agencies and word of mouth if not directly by DoC), and that's what international tourists are likely to expect based on comparable things elsewhere in the world. DoC could have ignored everyone and left them grumpily rationing in huts for an extra day or three against their expectations, probably also encouraging a few inexperienced or irrational people who just wanted out to take stupid risks in rivers. Even if nothing serious resulted it would likely have still resulted in people leaving in a bad mood, telling their touristy friends and posting on their touristy blogs and vowing not to bother visiting the NZ outdoors again. The tour operators wouldn't be happy, and they'd complain to DoC and to the rest of the government. But yeah. DoC's put itself well into the tourist industry with Great Walks. I don't especially like it, but I don't see it changing any time soon given the hold the international tourism machine (designing stuff they think tourists will want) has on Great Walks. I guess I'm just resigned that it's here to stay, and at least I can still go tramping elsewhere. I fully appreciate not everyone would see it this way.

They're in the business of managing people. Whilst i might be critical toward how they do it, i can't imagine a suitable alternative stategy than to at least channel most people toward several walks which have the facilities to cope and in doing so they leave a minimum impact on other wilderness areas.