Price hike to hobble overseas walkers
Hut fees double and foreign kids to pay adult fees in bid to raise cash for Great Walks. By Tim O’Connell. You say tomato, I say unique beauty product
OVERSEAS expats Paul Margis and Kayleigh Wang had the Abel Tasman track to themselves yesterday – that is, until they bumped into a fly-in/fly-out visit from a delegation of politicians and media.
The couple, Margis from the UK and Wang from the USA, now live in Wellington. But when their British and American friends and family follow them to see the sights they write home about, they will be hit with higher costs than Kiwis.
Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage announced she would double the hut fees for overseas tourists on the Abel Tasman, Routeburn and Kepler Great Walks and on that most famous track of all, the Milford.
Tourists on the Milford will now pay $140 a night – as much to stay in a tramping hut with no power or hot water, as they would for a full-service motel room outside the park.
From October, overseas children – previously exempt from hut fees like Kiwi kids – will pay as much as their parents and teachers.
‘‘International children will be paying the same as adults because there have been issues with Australian schoolchildren coming in and doing block bookings and then not always turning up.’’
The government hopes its Great Walks funding announcement will open new pathways to NZ’s lesser-travelled tracks, like the Whanganui River journey or Lake Waikaremoana. The trial will last seven months including summer – then the Government will decide to can it, or expand it to all nine Great Walks.
Margis and Wang agreed with the idea of paying a bit extra to contribute to the park infrastructure, though they acknowledged it would be unpopular among tourists. ‘‘There might be a bit of divide in the camp between Kiwis and internationals,’’ Margis said.
With more than 300,000 visitors to the Park annually, the Abel Tasman National Park is the most-frequented of New Zealand’s nine Great Walks and has seen an increase of 10 per cent over the last three years.
But as Sunday News reported last month, DoC rangers now find themselves cleaning up toilet paper, as the park becomes ever more crowded.
The new fees are intended to help cover the $3.8 million shortfall in maintaining the Great Walks and their facilities. A campsite now costs overseas visitors $15 per night, but that will rise to $30 under the new price structure.
‘‘It’s saying that NZ is a premier destination – our Great Walks are magnets for overseas visitors and to enjoy them it’s having visitors contribute more to the cost of DoC in providing these tracks and these fantastic huts and facilities,’’ Sage said.
The tourism industry has been opposed to differential pricing that they say makes overseas tourists feel second class, but similar structures are already in place at some tourist destinations, like Waitangi’s Treaty Grounds.
But locally, there is support for the pricing trial.
Wilsons Abel Tasman, which offers cruises, kayaking and guided walks around the park, said DOC was right to exploring options to address its funding shortfall.
‘‘As a country, we have to do something,’’ said chief executive Darryl Wilson. ‘‘I think it’s a step in the right direction.’’ BRADEN FASTIER / STUFF WEknow an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but beauty experts claim a tomato a day will keep wrinkles at bay.
Age-defying antioxidant Lycopene, found in tomatoes, is being heralded as the new musthave beauty fix.
And one Kiwi woman is turning the staple pantry item into a unique business idea.
Lycopene is a naturally occurring pigment which turns the fruit red, and the highest levels are found in processed or cooked tomatoes used in ketchup, paste, soup and juice.
But rather than slathering tomato paste on your face – although she says that’s not the worst idea – beauty businesswoman Stephanie Evans has incorporated the key ingredient into her skin care range – aptly a pink hue – launching this month.
Evans, founder of Oasis Beauty in Oxford North Canterbury, set about creating an anti-ageing and skin repair formulation, called Solar Serum, based on lycopene.
‘‘I’m excited that we can create something so effective from incredible ingredients like tomatoes,’’ she says.
‘‘It has taken two years but we have finally created something that is really lovely, it feels wonderful going on and most importantly it’s effective.’’