A need to reconsider Mount Cook camping ban

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33965, 4 October 1975, Page 21

A need to reconsider Mount Cook camping ban

(Specially written for "The Press’ by Hugh Wilson, botanist, mountaineer. and honorary ranger of the Mount ( -A National Park) x • J i'd ,n .° n -r. s a r° ie Mount Cook National Park Board banned camping in the mi ‘ . n r . efer . s to for ™al camping, particularly in the White I lorse I lill area, and bivvymg is still allowed. The board said that the decision was made reluctantly after considering all aspects of the question.” There are. of course sexcral ways of considering all aspects of anv question.

To people who were not aware of any increase in the problems arising from camping at Mount Cook, the announcement came as a surprise and shock. I Controversy has smoulidered for some time over 'questions of accommodation in the area; it seemed to imany that the provision of ihigher-cost beds was taking (too much precedence over ; accommodation for New ; Zealanders wanting to visit and enjoy their national park. Many claimed, ang- . rily, that the ideals of the ( National Park Act were ' being subordinated at Mount ( Cook because a weak and distant, though well-in- ’ tentioned, park board was . powerless against a Tourist Hotel Corporation hungry 1 for tourist dollars. < The family units built t

recently near the Hermitagi are providing another much needed class of accom modation but have hardb helped to alter the views o the park board and the cor poration. The A frames ot the Glencoe promontor were hastily foisted there b; Ministerial decree and ari administered by the corpor ation. I'he existence of the fam ily units does not remov< the need for camping sites For years people have beer pitching tents and parking t few caravans between Fo liage and White Horse Hills near the original Hermitagt site, two kilmetres from the present Hermitage and ou of site of the village. The) have been barely provider for. There is a concrete block picnic shelter wit! two pit toilets and another pit toilet in the bushes, nc sign posts, and apparently unknown.

Each spring, park staff at -Itempt to clear the polvthen - water-line, from a stream oi ■ 'the Sealy Range to an opei f tap. A rainwater tank on th - picnic shelter and anothe i (on a four-bunk cabin nea the old Hermitage monumen augment the supplv. Rubbisl ! drums are emptied by th ■[park staff. There has bee (no charge for the last fev - years, the nominal fee o : 20c a site having beei .(dropped when the board de i cided not to encourage i camping, and officially ig (nored it. .■ Nevertheless, the Whitt ■i Horse Hill area is a reason ' able camping ground foi ■ those not expecting the fac ( ilities of a full-scale motor--1 camp. To many campers, in deed, it is more than reason able. In good weather tht grassy sites are delightful i partly enclosed by morainic hills, native shrubs and small trees. Mature spruces Douglas firs and pines date from the original plantings of last century. Wood pigeons are often seen feeding on the totara and the exotic willows. Mount Sefton is a marvellous backdrop. The place is the hub of local tracks which radiate to the swing bridges of the Hooker Valley, to Kea Point and the Sealy Range, and lead back across the flats to the Mount Cook village. On only a few days in the year — all of them in the few weeks after Christmas - could the camping area be called crowded. An atmosphere of fun and friendliness pervaded those warm, populated evenings. For years, first as a visitor and then as park naturalist at Mount Cook. I not only camped a great deal in the park but also met most of the other people who camped at White Horse Hill. They made up a substantial part of attendances at my interpretation evenings in the visitor centre and of parties taking guided walks during the holiday programmes. It is not exaggerating to say that of the wide range of park visitors I encountered, the campers were generally the most aware of national park values, and used their time in the park to the full. In such a rainy mountain area as Mount Cook the elements sometimes made camping difficult or, very ( occasionally, impossible. People found then that ( White Horse Hill was not I quite the sheltered, peaceful

area it was in the sunshine. But they nearly always! accepted that as a feature of :he region, and put up with :t. Many were the kind of people who took some discomfort as part of their natonal park adventure. Not everything was ilways splendid. No-one could pretend that for those ew weeks in summer the oilets, and sometimes the vater supply, were adequate. • rhe park board was relucant to put time and capital nto providing bette. fac- , lities because it was looking i owards possible camping • ireas further down the val- i ey where electricity could . ie provided and where the t leather was not so capr-1 cious. The board had de-! 1 ided, too, that White Horse i lill was to be used even- j ually only for day picnic- \ t ig- j, Meanwhile, it remained! t he only camping area. If s pace was not a problem, r

I the capacity of the pit toi- ‘ (lets was. Suggestions dell teriorated into complaints i(The Health Department and ' the Mackenzie Count). Counjcil frowned and growled. In •response, the park board ( hastened its efforts to proi(cure sites for a camp ground ? on, or beyond, the park ii boundary and suffered a 1 series of genuine frustraI'tions. ‘i Problems with the camp [ground at White Horse Hill certainly exist But what the 'authorities fail dismally to see is that the provision of ■ camping facilities at Mount ;Cook is so important that these problems have to be solved positively. The response of the park board (has been wholly negative — to ban camping altogether until the planned new camp- ( ing ground is established (with facilities acceptable to | the Health Department and [the county council and the i modern car-based camper, j But to my knowledge a new (site is still not settled. Until •it is, places to camp are to (be denied the very people the board should be most anxious to cater for and into the park. [ since these people use the park in ways consistent with the spirit of the National Parks Act. Claims that campers at White Horse Hill were damaging the ecology of the area could only have been made by people quite out of touch with the park. Grass flattened for a few days is hardly damage, even in the eyes of fanatic conservationists and is trivial compared with the damage done when sub-alpine scrub, centuries old, was removed from the knoll behind the Hermitage to make way for a multi-storey extension to the hotel. A sensible solution is offering. A camping ground with full facilities should be established with all possible speed as close as possible to the centre of the visitors’ activity. The best site may be at Birch Hill on the park boundary, if closer sites are unsuitable. The planned camp near Twizel must be large enough to cater for people who want merely to visit Mount Cook for the day. Economically, these camps may be best run by one operator; the busy season for a camp well up the Tasman Valley is likely to be a short one. Both camps should draw away much of any pressure that increasing numbers of campers could create at White Horse Hill. There are no good reasons, ’ however, to refuse ’basic” camping in the White Horse Hill area. Adequate facilities will have to >e provided — sufficient pit oilets or septic tanks, a reiable water supply and good ire-places with safeguards igainst fire spreading or the nisuse of standing wood, fhe cost of all this would be mry small when compared with the sums being spent. >n development at Mount 3ook. But the facilities vould serve a substantial lumber of visitors who hould not be neglected by he park board. The Mayor of Timaru, on learing of the ban, said that 1 would be "ruthlessly oposed.” It would be well if he authorities heed the urency of the situation before uthless opposition is necesary. The park board must its decision.