New Zealand Huts Department of Conservation, Part D:
Great Walks user perceptions
in Great Walks Huts and Serviced Huts
by Sam Demas
(Note: this is part of the larger work New Zealand Huts: Notes towards a Country Study)
In operating the world’s largest hut system, DoC caters for trampers with vastly different experience and skill levels, from different parts of New Zealand society and from all over the world. DoC is continually trying to balance these disparate needs, abilities, and preferences through an evolving suite of “visitor management” methods. There appears to be widespread public recognition that DoC is continually walking a very difficult tightrope.
While Kiwis recognize that it is not possible to please everyone, DoC has learned that it can count on experienced local trampers to let them know when their visitor management methods are perceived as undermining traditional tramping. So DoC is well aware of the perceptions summarized below, and doubtless much more.
See related post New Zealand Great Walks: tourism and policies for broader context for these summary perceptions and for discussion of policies designed to address them.
Sources of user perceptions and notes on methodology
There are currently 33 Great Walks Huts and 95 Serviced Huts in the DoC system. This combined total of 128 huts constitutes 13.3% of total DoC huts (963). The user perceptions summarized below are from these two hut categories. While a small percentage of the whole system, these two categories attract the most intensive use and controversy.
This summary of user perceptions is derived from two sources: 1. from discussions that I gathered in three months of interviews and travels in NZ, and 2. from the results of an academic survey reported in the article “Tramper Perspectives on New Zealand’s Great Walks in a time of transition” (in New Zealand Geographer, 2017, p. 1-15, by Joe Fagan and Robin Kearns). [Alas, the link to this article will only get you the full text if you have access through a library with a digital subscription or if you wish to pay. Otherwise you can get a paper copy at your local library or request it on interlibrary loan.]