The Department of Conservation has released the opening dates for next season’s bookings for its huts, campsites and lodges.
Bookings for the 2022-23 season will open in the first half of April 2022 and are staggered to give people making multiple bookings a better chance of securing their preferred dates. The season runs from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023.
Bookings for South Island huts, lodges and most campsites will open on Tuesday, April 5, while those in the North Island will open on Thursday, April 7. Momorangi Bay Campground in the Marlborough Sounds will open on April 12, and Totaranui Campsite in Abel Tasman National Park will open on April 14. Great Walks bookings will open in early May with dates to be released shortly.
DOC heritage and visitors director, Steve Taylor says he recommends booking early to secure popular dates and times.
As part of DOC’s regular price reviews, there will be some minor changes to campsite fees for the coming year.
"DOC is focussed on ensuring New Zealanders have a wide and accessible range of opportunities to get into nature," Steve says.
"We provide around 300 bookable and non-bookable campsites that range from free to $25 per person per night.
"Visitor charges are a way of giving back to nature and mitigating visitor impacts, as well as ensuring the people who use these facilities contribute to the costs of providing them."
Steve says DOC has also decided to delay implementing any further use of differential pricing for international visitors beyond the Great Walks.
"Differential pricing can help us manage visitor pressures and ensure New Zealanders can access popular facilities.
"It is already a successful approach on Great Walks, and our preliminary work shows that differential pricing could be applied to other facilities under specific circumstances, such as when there is strong international and domestic demand and the facility is bookable," Steve says.
"We will revisit how to best to extend DOC’s use of differential pricing once sufficient numbers of international visitors return."
