Whakapapa summer programme popular

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 3, Issue 32, 21 January 1986, Page 5

Whakapapa summer programme popular

According to Paul Dale, senior ranger at Tongariro National Park Headquarters at Whakapapa, the park's Summer Nature Programme has attracted a lot of support despite heavy rain at times. "We had about the same numbers as last year, though the number was supplemented by those who would have gone to Turangi and Ohakune but for cutbacks," he said. While the weather caused cancellation of some of the high-level trips such as to the Crater Lake, Mr Dale said they always managed to get out and do something even if it was a short nature walk. He said that some of the overseas visitors were astounded to find themselves having fun on even quite bad days. Evening talks at park headquarters on subjects such as pressure on national parks, volcanic landscapes and historical themes were very popular, sometimes attracting over 1 50 people. Children's activities were some of the most successful

parts of the programme conducted every day at 4.30pm by Linda Skates, who worked for 2XR Radio Ruapehu last winter. She said the programme was over-run by kids from the nearby camping ground, from local areas and from further afield. "We go outside on natural history walks sometimes, other times we made damper, which they all told

me how to do because they were camping, and we made papier-mache volcanoes which they really liked, especially when we blew popcorn out the top!" she said. Mr Dale said that a regular transport link to and from Turangi had been established by Kevin Mora of Alpine Scenic Tours, delivering and collecting tourists to and from different entrances to the park. He said this had helped keep up numbers at Whakapapa this year. Comments have been made in Ohakune that it was a pity that there was not transport from there to Whakapapa so that on bad days tourists would still have access to the summer programme. Perhaps there is an oppor-

tunity for an enterprising Ohakune person? The refurbished audiovisual programme has also created interest at park headquarters. Although the soundtrack is the same all the transparencies have been replaced with brand-new sparkling shots taken by park rangers and the Tourist and Publicity Department. The format has also changed so that instead of pictures made up three separate images the three projectors now show panoramic overlapping shots which is-very impressive. Mr Dale said the soundtrack would be rewritten for the centenary of New Zealand national parks next year.