DoC officer defends hut fee system

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 270, 17 January 1989, Page 3

DoC officer defends hut fee system

With Department of Conservation (DOC) tramping hut accommodation now costing anything from $4 to $12 a night, many park hikers may be wondering where all their money is going to.

"Are the charges warranted for simple rural retreat?" and "Do they really take that much to maintain?" trampers may be asking. Department of Conservation Tongariro District senior conservation officer Dave Wakelin talks about some of the background costs behind the cosy hut trampers look forward to at the end of a long day's walk in the Tongariro National Park and in conservation areas around the country: "When trampers walk into a hut they see a fireplace and some bunks in a hut that's perhaps 20 years old. Sometimes it needs a new coat of paint and they wonder 'am I getting value for my $8?'. 'To find out, we need to start a breakdown of establishment costs, repairs, firewood supplies. Then look at how many huts are lost to landslides, floods and sometimes vandalism. "If people are wondering where the costs come in, they only need to look at the expense of maintaining their own house. Then imagine that house was home to perhaps 30 or 40 people a night for six to eight months of the year, situated 1200 metres above sea level and subject to snow, ice and blistering heat. "Then remember that to get supplies for home repairs you only have to pop into a shop. On Mts Ruapehu and Tongariro those supplies have to be specially ordered and, because huts are often in remote situations, supplies have to be driven as close as possible and then flown in." Mr Wakelin estimates that it costs DOC $35,000 a year just for helicopter hire to fly supplies in to its Tongariro huts. On top of that comes staff time, vehicle running and materials. Recently, the Ketetahi Hut's roof had to be replaced and at the same time firewood had to be flown into the Oturere and Waihohonu Huts. For about $5000 DOC flew in six weeks' supply of firewood, a new toilet for Oturere and a new stove and construction timber for Ketetahi. Helicopter hire costs DOC about $13 a minute. In addition, six staff were involved in loading and unloading the materials as well as finding firewood and transporting it to the helicopter takeoff site. Helicopter hire pushes maintenance costs high but, "in 7080 per cent of New

Zealand's parks it is impractical not to use jet boats or helicopters", Mr Wakelin said. In Fiordland a coastal vessel has to be used for access to remote huts and, in the high altitude Mt Cook National Park it would be very difficult to get materials in any other way. Because of their remoteness the cost of maintaining some huts pushes up the prices of others and hut prices do vary according to their repair cost and condition. Older huts and those with rela-

tively easy access cost $4 a night, huts with harder access are charged out at $8 a night and newer or very remote huts cost $12. But, said Mr Wakelin, it would be unfair for each hut's charge to reflect only its own maintenance cost. "You can't point to a small hut and say, 'well that doesn't cost much to maintain' because if each of our huts was charged individually, dependant on its maintenance cost, you would find some of our most popular huts would not be used. 'To stay in the Ketetahi Hut might cost $15 a night instead of $8, while a hut lower

down the mountain might cost $3 a night instead of the present $4," he said. In this case although the lower huts' charge was higher than its true cost it helped subsidise the more popular, but also more costly to maintain, hut further up the mountain. DOC is constantly looking for ways to reduce maintenance costs so that hut fees do not have to be increased, Mr Wakelin said. Flying the new potbelly stove in to the Ketetahi Hut was part of that drive. "Fireplaces are in the huts primarily for winter heating but people also use them for cooking. In the summer the huts can get very hot and the stoves still use a lot of firewood. By putting in a smaller stove trampers can still heat the huts but they should use less fuel, which means

we will have to restock less often," he said. There are many ways in which trampers can help in reducing operating costs too. Economical use of firewood, using their own gas stoves for cooking and carrying rubbish out would top the list, Mr Wakelin said. Currently DOC flies rubbish out from the Tongariro National Park huts on return trips after dropping off firewood. If more trampers take their cardboard, plastic and foil packaging rubbish with them, helicopter rubbish collection will also need to be less frequent. "All of this could help us delay any increases in hut fees," he said. "Hut users have to be forward thinking now, they have to look for something they can do to cut down on maintenance costs. It's in their own interest*"

In the future huts will not gendrally be funded by the Government. Instead their maintenance, improvements and the replacement will be funded from

users' hut fees. Because of this, paying the fee has become essential for the upkeep of recreational tramping huts, according to. DOC.