Winding down Fiordland Great Walks Greatest Season

Media release

30 April 2013

Winding down Fiordland Great Walks Greatest Season

High visitor numbers and high visitor satisfaction have been highlights of Fiordland’s summer Great Walks Season, which finished on 30 April 2013. The Department of Conservation is now preparing to convert the huts and tracks into winter mode.

What makes for the greatest Great Walk’s season? The friendly and competent Conservation Rangers are a key component, and visitors love them.

During the season (October-April) Fordland’s Great Walk tracks are staffed by DOC rangers. They do everything from helping first time trampers with advice and support, to making sure the huts are clean and keeping the sewage treated. They clear vegetation, maintain the tracks, trap pests (like possums, stoats and rats) and are experts on their patch of Fiordland. They ensure huts are warm and welcoming for the daily influx of new arrivals, keep the weather reports up to date, and give informative hut talks in the evenings – as well as ensuring everyone has arrived safely.

This season saw higher walker numbers than usual. Despite some dramatic weather in January, it has been a great summer for getting out into public conservation land, and people have been doing just that. Compared with the 2011/12 summer, 1471 more people walked the Routeburn and 1422 more walked the Kepler. There was a 1% decrease in walkers on the Milford Track this year, mainly due to weather related January cancellations on a usually fully booked track. Bookings for next season have already opened.

An increase in walker numbers reflects an increase in awareness about Great Walks, thanks to national promotions like the Air New Zealand safety video featuring Bear Grylls and filmed on the Routeburn. “It is fantastic to see an increasing number of people keen to get out into our national park,” said DOC Te Anau Area Manager, Reg Kemper. “This year has also been a good year for biodiversity on Fiordland Great Walks, with strong local and national business partnerships providing extra support and funding to protect these areas and their potential for biodiversity.”

The Kepler, Routeburn and Milford tracks are open to the public year round, but with reduced winter servicing and hut fees. DOC staff are currently preparing for winter. This involves closing the summer toilets and removing waste, turning off the gas at the huts, the rangers leaving residence and removing bridges that are located on avalanche paths. The tracks become more technical during winter months due to snowfall, avalanche risk, shorter daylight hours and no staff or communications available on the tracks. Trampers need to have a higher level of competency, carry their own communications, and be prepared for winter conditions.

While not staffed, DOC conservation rangers periodically visit huts during winter to check their condition and collect hut tickets.

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Background information - Previous release

23 February 2013
Rare ducks released into Milford Track
Seventy-four endangered pateke (brown teal) were released into the Arthur Valley on the Milford Track on Thursday, 21 February as a result of a new Great Walk conservation initiative between the Department of Conservation and Air New Zealand.
The pateke release is part of the wider Air New Zealand Great Walks Biodiversity Project – a $1 million dollar conservation initiative that aims to restore bird life and habitats along DOC’s Great Walks, including the Milford Track.
As well as funding the pateke release, the Air New Zealand Great Walks Biodiversity Project is supporting increased predator control along the Milford Track.
The density of stoat traps along the track has been doubled over the past few months and possum and rat control is being established in part of the Clinton Valley.
The more intensive predator control will protect vulnerable species, such as kiwi, that still exist in the area, and allow other threatened species, such as pateke and takahe to be returned to the area.
DOC Te Anau’s area manager Reg Kemper says the partnership will mean that New Zealand and international visitors will be able to walk among some of the world’s rarest birds on one of the world’s best tracks.
‘The pateke are the first vulnerable species to be returned as part of this partnership. Next year, we’re hoping to release takahe to the Milford Track – this will be the first time in living memory takahe have been back in the Clinton Valley.”
“To be able to encounter one of the world’s rarest birds in its natural environment will only underline the international reputation of the Milford Track.”
Air New Zealand’s Head of Sponsorship and Community James Gibson says investing in this conservation project is a natural fit for Air New Zealand.
“Supporting these biodiversity projects encourages richer bird life on New Zealand’s signature walking tracks and improves the overall experience for domestic and international tourists alike.”
The pateke released on the Milford Track last week are part of a six-year project to re-establish a pateke population in the South Island. Pateke were present in the Arthur Valley until the 1990s, but were lost from the area due to predation by introduced predators, particularly stoats. The first release of pateke into the Arthur Valley occurred in 2009.
Pateke are the rarest waterfowl on the New Zealand mainland. Re-establishing a pateke population on the Milford track is an important step to secure the species nationally.

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Further background information:

Air NZ Great Walks Biodiversity Project

• The $1 million project has grown out of the partnership signed earlier this year between DOC and Air New Zealand which aims to reinvigorate and promote New Zealand’s internationally renowned Great Walk tracks.

• Using site specific management tools and strengthened predator control zones, the project aims to enable visitors experience unique native birds in the wild.

• The first work on this ambitious project has already started with DOC and Air New Zealand staff teaming up at four Great Walk sites to begin the environmental management and predator control needed to bring the birds back.

• This work will eventually pave the way to put takahe back into the Milford Track, tieke (saddleback) and kokako back around the Lake Waikaremoana Great Walk, whio in the Routeburn Valley and restore populations of kiwi and robins on the Stewart Island/Rakiura Track.

• The initiative builds on the reputation of our Great Walks as a must-do tourist experience – it’s a great example of the environmental and economic return from investing in conservation.

Milford Track Project work

• The Department of Conservation has been controlling stoats along the Milford Track and surrounding valleys since 1999 to protect whio (blue duck). The Air NZ Great Walks Biodiversity Project will allow the protection of more vulnerable native species, such as kaka, kiwi, kakariki and robins, by increasing the density of stoat traps and extending the predator control to include rats and possums.
• The more intensive predator control will allow the reintroduction of threatened bird species that can’t exist in areas where predators are uncontrolled. This has already begun with the release of pateke (brown teal) into the Arthur Valley and will be followed by re-introducing mohua and takahe to the area in 2014.
• The pāteke were once widespread throughout New Zealand but are now rare and restricted to Great Barrier Island, coastal valleys of eastern Northland, and several other locations around New Zealand where new populations have been established using translocated birds.
• There are currently estimated to be between 2,000 and 2,500 pāteke living in a wild state in New Zealand, making it New Zealand’s rarest waterfowl species on the mainland.

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