New Zealand's Great Tramps

Many of the Tararua tracks established for the deer control work, were taken off the "official" track list, when the Park management plan was re written in the early 1980s. A few have been reinstated (officially), but the official track system is still much the same Quite a few have been reopened by trampers/hunters. DOC don't want them reopened. an application was made last year to recut the tracks radiating out from park Forks and also McGregor spur. DOC declined approval FMC did a bit of a 'survey' but support/apposition was split, so it was dropped These tracks have been marked anyway. But not very tidy, range of coloured tape marking, plus original permolat markers reinstated. Bit of an eyesore IMO. DOC seem to be saying 'not enough funding' to maintain all existing huts and tracks. But unlike say the West Coast (Permolate group), they wont allow formal reinstatement of those tracks. (although there hasn't been much pressure to reopen them) The 'offical' track system is a bit like the old one from the 40s/50s pre Forest Service, although a few NZFS tracks have been retained. eg Cattle ridge to Dundas, Arete gorge sidle, etc. some of the early tracks shown on the old Park maps, traversed some odd routes, and have been replaced by better aligned routes.

Oh maybe to an extent but, for example, is it really important for DOC to be officially pouring resources into maintaining something like the Block XIX track that's shown on the 1999 layer? http://mapspast.org.nz/?zoom=14&x=1798701&y=5461270&layerid=NZMS260%201999 How about the tracks up to Table Ridge from Arete Forks and Cow Creek? http://mapspast.org.nz/?zoom=14&x=1809520&y=5482331&layerid=NZMS260%201999 These are still routes that people use despite their lack of continuing official-ness, and where routes aren't still being used then they're probably not that valuable anyway.

"DOC has started recently admitting they don't have enough infrastructure where the main NZ population live" Hey they just closed the Auckland DOC visitor centre, that's some kind of dedication to show that they don't know what they're doing ^^ As for what the govt is doing, it reminds me of what the national parks service did in the USA, where they ran highways, killed fauna and flora, proposed an amusement park in the middle of a NP to Disney, etc etc. that struggle between conservation and tourism is described in Bill Brysons "A walk in the woods", it was 20 years ago, and it's still the same problem, everywhere in the world…

the tararuas in the 80's had far more tracks than they do today, people dont realise that the original Forest Service were given a budget to build additional huts and tracks to encourage recreation in the mountains, it wasnt all about maintaining forest and killing pests. Thats part of the reason there were so many tracks and huts in the tararuas in the first place, partly because it was so close to a large population, where else in the country does a park that size get so many huts and tracks? come north and its laughable the infrastrucure in parks for trampers. DOC's answer was to throw in the odd hut like the Pinnacles hut in the Coromandel. a couple of hours from the road end, sleeps 80... its tramping but not as the rest of the country know it.. because of its size and uniqueness, the hut is a magnet for massive youth groups. thats great for those starting out in tramping but for a lot of experienced trampers, its not the experience they are after. Auckland Regional Council do far more around the area, mind you they have more land than DOC, but for the size of teh Waitakeres, theres a major infrastructure of tracks, 250km in a park thats about ten kilometres by twenty. meanwhile DOC focus on serving tourists and not easily reachable areas for city bound NZers

@izogi. That's an old version of the Tararua topo. try the 2009 one. Lots different. The old tracks on to table ridge, and Arete Forks-Waingawa have been kept marked by trampers/hunters. Ditto Dorset ridge, Nichols, McGregor, Carkeek, Mid King, Carkeek-Upper waiohine, Pinnacles ridge-Donnelly flats, among others. Most are marked only, which is OK enough to use. They don't need to be cut too much.IMO @waynoski, the NZFS built 6 bunk huts for the deer conteol, because of the high tramping use of the Tararuas. Usually a 4 bunk version was used elsewhere, a lot. The NZFS also built a few tramping huts huts (tutuwai, Totara flats, te Matawai, Powell, Jumbo, Herepai, Alpha, Vossler) in the 1980, and some tracks. But in the 1960s, the initial track network supporting the 6 bunk culling huts was for deer control work. Ditto with Bridges. There was even objections form wellington tramping clubs about 'over development' of the Range. But they very quickly became popular with trampers. those huts and tracks really opened up the Tararuas, and enabled more to tramp the likes of the Main Range, central tararuas, etc The emphasis in spending by DOC is now the roadends, far more than even in the 1990s. And also Mountain Bike tracks are planned, (Kaitoke-Holdsworth) which will cost a lot of $$ to build

DOC are triaging their infrastructure. resource intensive, popular tracks ad huts. moderate resource intensive tracks and huts and low resource intensive . low popularity tracks and huts and the latter two especially the lowest category they are tending to farm out to volunteers to manage or get rid of

Hi @TararuaHunter. Yes that's more or less the point I was trying to make earlier. I'm not totally convinced of the need for DOC to maintain all these tracks that might have been officially recognised decades ago. Sometimes tracks need official help, especially if there's big help needed with geotechnical issues, bridges or whatever, and that's where I most like to see DOC involved. But useful routes will often just stick around thanks to the help of people who want to continue using them. I'm not sure if people should be encouraged to head up to somewhere like Tarn Ridge if they're not capable of managing themselves without an official track to follow.

Lonely Planet's enthusiasm strikes again. http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/323051/trampers-in-taranaki-stuck-in-the-mud-after-lonely-planet-nod To be fair to LP, groups in New Zealand have been talking about pushing the Pouakai Crossing, as a big thing, for some time now. Apparently it rains lots.

"To be fair to LP, groups in New Zealand have been talking about pushing the Pouakai Crossing" probably wont be as highliy used as Tongariro. But the soils are lots different, and the original track was a mud hole. Its going to cost DOC lots to keep it to standard, along with all the issues of servicing etc

http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/85239689/the-big-read-living-in-the-shadow-of-taranakis-ticking-time-bomb http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10351746