MSC welcomes new DOC Queenstown Visitor Centre

The New Zealand Mountain Safety Council (MSC) has welcomed the opening of the new Department of Conservation (DOC) Visitor Centre in Queenstown as an important win for outdoor safety in the popular tourist area.

The MSC worked with DOC to develop a ‘Know Before You Go’ safety wall, the first of its kind in visitor centres around the country.

MSC Chief Executive Mike Daisley said ensuring people had access to the right safety information and advice before venturing into the outdoors was critical, and visitor centres were a great source for this information.

“There are a lot of great resources and websites for planning an outdoor trip but visitor centres are able to provide localised advice about things like huts, weather and track conditions, which are a key part of trip planning.

“I encourage visitors to the area, who might be planning an outdoor trip, to visit the new visitor centre, access the impressive information and resources available and tap into that all important local knowledge.”

The wall features an interactive display that provides critical advice on topics such as avalanches, rivers and communications, and an extreme environment screen showing footage of various weather conditions.

“While the wall is based around the five basic rules of the Outdoor Safety Code, it was important to the MSC that the information was relevant and specific to the local environment in Queenstown. We spent time with DOC Queenstown staff working to understand common questions they received and common safety issues in the area, and worked from there.
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“It’s been great to see the fruits of that collaboration and to understand the potential for other similar projects with our partners, like DOC, in the future.”

DOC Queenstown Visitor Centre Supervisor Kaja Vetter said she had been similarly impressed by the collaboration.

“Working with the MSC was very inspiring, and the engaging approach to safety information will support the work that the MSC and DOC do in encouraging safe recreation.”

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