Where to now for the $500m plan to transform Milford Sound tourism?

Saturday, 3 August 2024

The hordes are back.

On the busiest days last summer, when visitor numbers outstripped the supposed 4000 daily limit, Milford Sound/Piopiotahi again swarmed with tourists jostling for views, circling for scarce car parks.

“It's just back to normal again,” says Te Anau conservationist Ken Bradley. “People everywhere, problems parking cars … Same old, same old, as it was pre-Covid.”

When the pandemic shut-down spawned talk of a great tourism reset, Milford Sound was the beacon of hope - the promise of a plan to do things differently.

Since 2017, the Milford Opportunities Project (MOP) had been mulling ways to reduce overcrowding at the premier tourist destination. The group’s chairperson promised “radical change”, and the 2021 masterplan certainly delivered it.

With a tagline of “New Zealand as it was, forever”, it promised to ban fixed wing planes and cruise ships, close the road to international drivers and charge them an entry fee, and bring in timed car park bookings to spread the visitor load.

After three years of feasibility testing, MOP’s final proposal has been presented to the tourism and conservation ministers. But Tourism Minister Matt Doocey has repeatedly indicated he doesn’t support road access restrictions or banning planes or cruise ships, and he wants more tourism, not less.

With tourism operators arguing the years of discussion have paralysed progress and led to mouldering infrastructure, and environmentalists still wanting drastic measures to cut crowding, there’s one thing everyone agrees on - seven years and $18 million cannot end with Milford Sound as it is, forever.

What’s the problem?

Way back in 2007, the Fiordland National Park Management Plan noted the clamour to see the world’s tallest sea cliff rising from the deep, dark fiord made Piopiotahi “noisy and busy” from 10.30am to 3pm.

Visitors to the Freshwater Basin boat cruise base should be restricted to 4000 a day, with a maximum of 2500 between 11am and 2pm, the park plan decreed.

That was when tourists numbered fewer than 500,000 a year. The crowds almost doubled to 946,000 in 2018 and were projected to grow to 1.1 million by 2030, and 2 million by 2035.

But the 4000 daily limit was never enforced. From December 2018 to March 2019, that number was exceeded on 30 days, peaking at 5771.

“The large number of visitors is putting too much pressure on the natural environment, local infrastructure and roads,” MOP concluded.

Figures obtained by the The Post show 7838 plane and helicopter landings at Milford aerodrome in 2023 ‒ up on the 7775 flights in 2019.

Boat cruise tourists also rebounded almost to the pre-pandemic peak, exceeding 4000 on 10 days during the 2023/24 summer season.

“Nobody has had the balls to get up and say at the [Homer] tunnel, ‘Right, you’re the 3999th person through today, that’s it, she’s all over rover’,” says Bradley, who worked in Fiordland National Park for 50 years, including managing Milford Track and Milford Road campsites. “That’s the issue ‒ there’s no control on the number going in.”

A key plank of the MOP masterplan was to control access, to reduce people and traffic snarl-ups.

It proposed closing the road to international drivers, who would instead hop on an electric bus park-and-ride from Te Anau. They’d also pay a $90-110 entry fee to help fund Milford infrastructure and conservation.

Kiwi travellers could still drive, but would have to pre-book time-restricted car parks, to help spread visitor numbers across the day.

But road access controls now seem unlikely.

No-one will say what remains of the original masterplan in MOP’s 600-plus page proposal to the government. MOP chairperson Jenn Bestwick, programme director Chris Goddard and Doocey all declined interviews.

But Doocey is not alone in questioning road access restrictions. A June 2023 ministerial paper from the previous government found the move would need a specially-tailored law and the masterplan rationale was 'unlikely to provide a strong enough case to override the operational, legislative and cost implications of the option, if alternative options can achieve the intended outcomes”.

So if the great hulk of cruise ships can still enter the sound, planes can still fly there, and the road remains unrestricted, what would be left of MOP’s vision?

“That was the crux of the plan,” says Bradley.

However, Doocey has not ruled out a voluntary park-and-ride or controlling carparks. If a car park booking system is the only access restriction that survives, it would still make a difference, Bradley says.

“That would certainly alleviate the situation and it would be relatively simple to do.”

Doocey also does not appear to have ruled out an entry fee for international travellers, although the 2023 paper concluded that would also require new legislation.

This government has rebooted plans to increase the International Visitor Levy (IVL) that tourists pay on entering the country, to close the gap between the $80m the levy brings in and the $246m tourists cost the government, councils and the Department of Conservation (DOC) in maintenance and infrastructure.

In a forward to that proposal, Doocey acknowledges that “our public infrastructure and conservation estate may face considerable pressure from higher visitor numbers”.

“I believe too many costs are falling on the ratepayer and taxpayer,” he writes.

What do Milford users want?

When Te Anau-based Trips & Tramps owner Steve Norris drops groups at Piopiotahi for the 11 o’clock boat cruise, there might be 15 buses clustered around the terminal. When they return at 1pm, that can triple to 45-50 buses.

That’s because 45% of Milford Sound visitors come from Queenstown. With a 4½ hour drive each way, they’re always going to arrive around lunch-time. So the only way to slash that peak-time congestion, would be to ban coach trips from Queenstown. And everyone agrees, that’s never going to happen.

Getting international visitors out of their cars and onto a park-and-ride from Te Anau would at least solve the car park chaos, which was “hitting a bit of a boiling point” in the busy months pre-Covid, Norris says.

That seems a relatively easy win, even if it requires a new law.

“That’s all just changing legislation. It’s not impossible. It makes sense…I think it’s all about getting it back to the quality experience that Milford deserves.”

Having seen how a booking system transformed the Routeburn track, Norris also supports a cap on numbers, which is common in tourist hotspots worldwide.

“They all had a far better experience, because they all had a bunk to sleep in, and they weren’t having to sprint from one hut to the next to make sure they got a bed.

“I believe there should be a daily limit. If you want to go to a movie, if it’s full tonight, well you’ll go tomorrow tonight, or the next night…So if you want to go, you’ve just got to be a bit more organised.”

He questions why DOC never enforced the 4000 daily visitor cap set by the national park plan.

“If no-one polices it, why have a limit?”

(Asked why it never enforced the limit, DOC says concession usage at the boat terminal “has rarely reached the 4000 visitor per day threshold”.)

But Norris’ biggest fear is that the MOP project will join the long list of tourism action plans that have gone nowhere.

“A lot of people around Te Anau think, ‘Well geez, they’ve had $18 million to spend, the last thing you want is nothing to happen’.”

Rosco Gaudin has been around long enough to remember the last Milford Concept Plan, way back in 1999. Having run a kayak tour business out of Piopiotahi for more than 30 years, he rates the likelihood of transformational change at 2 out of 10, with the masterplan’s $450-500 million price tag unlikely to be a priority.

“I think the government could chuck it out…You can have all these ideas, but who’s going to pay for it? That’s the bottom line.”

Gaudin is one of the few tourism operators that supports banning cruise ships entering the sound, after “so many bad experiences” on kayak trips.

“They come into Milford and think they own the place.”

He also supports access controls, although he thinks a daily limit is too blunt.

“There has to be a cap on numbers, at some point. You just can’t keep firing people in - 5000, 6000, 7000, 8000. Where does it stop?”

Like Norris, he believes establishing the long-mooted park-and-ride would at least be “a small win”.

“Any change is better than no change.”

Invercargill fisherman Ian Carrick has used Milford Sound’s Deepwater Basin as a jumping off point for Fiordland fishing trips for 26 years. In that time, the Fiordland Recreation and Conservation Trust trustee and Southern Sport Fishing Club secretary has watched it get busier and busier.

Towing a 7m boat trailer, he frequently has close calls on the windy access road, so he’s also keen on the park-and-ride idea.

“The less vehicles on the road, the safer it’s got to be.”

And the facilities desperately need an upgrade, Carrick says. The only toilets in the Deepwater Basin area ‒ which Gaudin’s kayakers also use ‒ are “embarrassing”.

“The infrastructure is poor, and it’s a bad reflection on New Zealand.”

MOP board member Michael Skerrett (Ngāi Tahu) hopes the visitor journey can be enhanced with Māori culture, with carvings and artforms throughout the landscape.

“It’s a cultural desert in there at the moment.”

The chance to tell Ngāi Tahu’s stories of Piopiotahi is “huge” for the iwi, he says.

“Back in the 60s there was practically only Ngāi Tahu fishermen in there, and gradually the place has been overtaken by tourism. I’m not against tourism, by any means, but it’s about being visible in place again, and employment opportunities, and business opportunities.”

Skerrett also thinks charging international visitors is key, to help pay for environmental work.

“Conservation is seriously underfunded, when you look at the size of the conservation estate. It’s enormous.”

‘Frozen to the ground’

Other tourism businesses take a different view. Frustrated at the slow progress, and fiercely opposed to the plan to ban fixed wing planes, a group of operators formed advocacy group Destination Milford Sound.

They devised their own Piopiotahi tourism plan, including an airport terminal, community centre and multi-level carpark.

Destination Milford Sound chairman Mark Quickfall, who runs Milford coach-and-cruise and flight businesses, says the seven-year MOP process has paralysed investment at Piopiotahi.

“Milford is really frozen to the ground at the moment, waiting for some decisions.”

To make things worse, the 10-year 2007 Fiordland National Park Management Plan still has not been reviewed.

That means the 400-odd concessions allowing tourist businesses to operate in the national park are not being renewed. Instead, many operators are working off month-to-month permissions.

Businesses can’t spend $5m to $20m on a new boat or $6m for a new plane, with such an uncertain future, Quickfall says.

“You go to the bank and say ‘Look, we’re waiting for the plans and our concessions to be issued’, they’re just going to laugh.

“Every day we leave it, there’s less and less investment going in, and we’re not providing professional, safe and sustainable experiences for people.”

DOC can’t confirm how many concessions have expired, or why. There’s no date to review the park plan, which DOC says is waiting on the review of other management planning documents, and “ensuring we have an agreed way forward with our Treaty partners”.

As well as opposing any ban on cruise ships or planes, Quickfall is wary of access charges. While surveys suggested international travellers (other than Aussies) were willing to pay $90-110, he reckons they’d feel differently if they realised they already pay fees through DOC concessions, a boat cruise levy and the International Visitor Levy.

“What we don’t want to see is double-dipping.”

And while cruise operators all want to spread the crowds to maximise use of their boats, the best way to change behaviour is by marketing and pricing, Quickfall says.

“The one thing you cannot do with visitors is dictate to them. So you have to influence.”

Quickfall doesn’t agree that Milford is over-touristed, as travellers from cities of heaving humanity have a different view of crowding. But he does accept some management is needed to avoid killing the golden goose.

“We’ve seen this worldwide with tourism ‒ where the social licence to operate is important …We have no interest in turning what is an incredible experience into something that’s not incredible.”

Having once stood in a queue for 3½ hours to get into the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel, Ken Bradley agrees that international visitors have a different perception of crowded.

“They don’t have an issue with that, but we do. So is it a park run for us, or for internationals? In my view, it’s New Zealanders’ park, and it’s a privilege for international people to visit it.”

A blueprint for the future?

Like many, Raewyn Peart looked at the Piopiotahi plan and saw hope. To the Environmental Defence Society policy director, Milford Sound was a chronic example of over-tourism. And MOP’s masterplan was a visionary scheme to manage congestion, integrate Māori culture, and extract funds for infrastructure and to help protect the environment tourists come to see.

“To me, it’s been an outstanding example of what we might achieve if we think creatively and in a different way. So I personally would be very disappointed if the government didn’t at least support the general thrust of this proposal.”

But the project has again thrown up the lack of options available to DOC to manage visitor numbers. While the department can charge for - and restrict access to - facilities such as huts and campgrounds, the Conservation Act doesn’t allow it to restrict access to conservation land.

“We need a better tailored statutory framework that enables better management of tourism pressure, to generate funds to manage those places,” says Peart. “Tourists need to be paying more for that.”

DOC’s 2021 visitor strategy promised to investigate new ways to manage tourism pressures. Asked what new tools have been developed, DOC director of heritage and visitors, Cat Wilson, points to the differential pricing for Kiwis and internationals on Great Walks (which was first introduced in 2018, before the 2021 strategy).

DOC has also introduced demand-based pricing for huts and campsites, and a voluntary booking system for the Tongariro Alpine Crossing.

The department is not investigating new ways to restrict (or charge for) access to national parks but is exploring “user-pays options” to raise funds for conservation, Wilson says.

Before the masterplan’s release, former MOP chairman Keith Turner promised “radical system change”. Asked if there needs to be a better process to ensure long-running projects don’t produce plans that politicians then don’t support, Turner argues the previous government’s $15 million feasibility funding was a clear endorsement of the masterplan.

“If you’re going to the eighth wonder of the world, then it would not be organised the way Milford is organised. There was widespread acknowledgement that the status quo could not continue.”

Quickfall says if the MOP process is to be a blueprint, it needs to be put on fast-forward.

“We agree with good, strong governance, robust plans for these places. But you shouldn’t have to wait 10 years for those to be developed, and then once they’re released they’re out of date.”

Like many, fisherman Carrick hopes Milford will change, but worries the original plan will be too watered down.

“If this is meant to be one of the jewels in the crown of New Zealand tourism, I think they need to take it seriously, and not do a half-baked approach.”