DOC

Around 9000 Great Walks bookings have been made in the week since the 2019/20 season bookings opened on 11 June, said the Department of Conservation.

Milford Track is now full from mid-November to mid-February after bookings opened yesterday.

Commercial operators using the West Coast Te Tai o Poutini and hoping to access Paparoa Track when it opens in December have been thrown a curve-ball as a result of the Department of Conservation running into legal issues.

Operators weigh in after Eugenie Sage pours cold water on “high intensity” activities on the conservation estate.

The minister on Skyline’s glacier gondola, accommodation proposals and “tranquility mapping” the national parks.

Increasing numbers of visitors continue to flock to New Zealand’s conservation estate, growing at more than double the pace of overall New Zealand visitor numbers, according to the Department of MORE »

DOC raked in more money and saw more domestic but fewer international visitors on its Great Walks this season.

More than a third of the tourism operators using the conservation estate in parts of the Bay of Plenty did not have a concession, says the Department of Conservation.

DOC’s Director General on the agency’s work with industry, managing compliance, and planning for future growth.

DOC has moved its visitor centre services ahead of a planned upgrade to the Arthur’s Pass national park visitor centre later this year.

The opening of New Zealand’s tenth Great Walk, the Paparoa Track, has been pushed back by two months to allow more time for track construction.

The track should never have been promoted as one of the NZ’s ‘great day walks’, says DOC’s director general.

DOC’s director general calls out operators for not doing enough to protect the environment they profit from.

NZers have “come back onto our tracks in droves” after overseas visitor fees were hiked, says DOC’s director general.

New recreational activities will also be considered in a review of the park’s management plan.

The expansion of Kahurangi National Park will help protect the added land for generations of visitors to come, say operators in the region.

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The Department of Conservation has rejected criticism that it was cause of delays to NZSki’s $16m chairlift upgrade at The Remarkables.

Collaboration between the i-SITE Visitor Information Network and the Department of Conservation has stepped up a notch in Rotorua with the opening of a new DOC visitor information hub in the tourism hotspot’s central i-SITE.

DOC’s new head of Heritage and Visitors, Steve Taylor, on the changes being made to ‘front foot’ the opportunities and risks of visitor growth. 

DOC has delayed its review of its Aoraki/Mount Cook and Westland Tai Poutini national parks plans because of an iwi concessions case.

Seabirds are being dazzled into crash landing on cruise ships in the Hauraki Gulf.

The beach and access area to Cape Kidnappers are to remain closed following a slip that injured two Korean tourists. 

The Department of Conservation has restructured its Recreation, Tourism and Heritage unit and has appointed a new director of the reformed division.

Another effort imploring visitors to behave has been launched, this time by the Department of Conservation.

The Department of Conservation’s new plan to manage the growing numbers of visitors accessing New Zealand’s conservation estate is on track to be delivered this financial year, according to DOC’s just released 2018 annual report.

The duo have this month agreed that the partnership will continue until 2022.

New Zealanders are being urged to quiz visitors on their tramping plans and to offer advice following the death of a walker at Ruapehu last week.

The Department of Conservation has rejected claims kiwis have been mishandled for the benefit of tourists at the country’s largest privately-owned conservation project.

Visitors to the area are being urged to consider alternative walks while the temporary ban is in place.

An opponent of the plan says that if it is approved it will become “a substantial test case in court”.

The operator’s multi-million dollar proposal has taken a crucial step forward.

A new approach to the management of aircraft activity and swelling visitor numbers are included in the Department of Conservation’s proposals for two South Island national parks.

The opening date for New Zealand’s tenth great walk has been pushed back from April 2019 until September the same year.

Walking tracks in Northland, the Marlborough Sounds and Southland are fighting it out to be named the Department of Conservation’s new Great Walk of New Zealand.

Milford Track had the highest demand on opening day of DOC’s new booking system.

Women dominate a list of 57 new appointments to New Zealand’s conservation boards – a key link between the Department of Conservation and the community.

The deaths are the first ever recorded of identifiable individuals from the Kaikōura canyon population.

Thirty-four tracks have been earmarked for full or partial closure by the Department of Conservation, which is seeking feedback on its latest attempt to combat kauri dieback disease.

The Department of Conservation is warning keen whale watchers to keep at least 50m away from the rare southern right whale/tohora currently in Wellington Harbour.

A number of tracks on the Kauri Coast are to be closed temporarily as the Department of Conservation continues to battle the spread of kauri dieback disease.

The Department of Conservation has launched its new $3m online booking service for those wanting to tramp one of the country’s nine Great Walks.

The i-SITE Visitor Information Network and Department of Conservation have held a workshop in Auckland to discuss further collaboration.

A plan to double foreign tourist fees has met a mixed reception.

Foreign tourists will soon have to pay up to $140 per night to stay at some huts along the country’s Great Walks.

For the third year running DOC is inviting people to help name the newest Royal cam albatross chick at the Taiaroa Head colony on Otago Peninsula.

Management and compliance issues have increased in NZ’s national parks.

The Federated Mountain Clubs of New Zealand is today declaring victory over the Department of Conservation’s decision to allow a massive number of helicopter landings on a remote Fiordland Glacier.

DOC is closing the Mt Karioi summit tracks, near Raglan, following a confirmed finding of myrtle rust. It will be closed to the public until further notice.

Lincoln University and the Department of Conservation are teaming up to meet “a desperate need” in the parks and recreation sector.