Push for Park and Ride charges in Waimarino - National Park

Wednesday, 30 April 2025

Visitors who are adventuring around Tongariro National Park can leave their vehicles at the Park and Ride and get a shuttle.

It might soon cost $10 a day to leave a vehicle at Waimarino’s Park and Ride while adventuring around Mt Ruapehu and Tongariro National Park.

With growing use and rising costs at the facility, the local community board wants the council to look into a daily parking charge for all spaces.

A $10 a day figure has been mooted, with initial feedback that “high-end users” would be happy to pay to reserve a secure site.

Ruapehu District Council ratepayers contributed $600,000 towards the $2.9m Park and Ride, which opened in 2019.

The idea was that visitors could leave their vehicles when they took shuttles to outdoor destinations around the area, and it’d help reduce congestion.

“They’re using it a lot,” the council’s Pauline Welch told the Ōwhango-National Park Community Board at an April meeting.

Data from the CamperMate app - used by mobile homes and similar- showed about 2000 users in 2022 and 4000 last year, said Welch, the council’s executive manager community and economic development.

This park and ride is getting increasingly popular with those visiting outdoor attractions around Mt Ruapehu and Tongariro National Park.

But growing popularity has created challenges including “accelerated wear and tear and high waste disposal costs”, her report to the board says.

The revenue of just over $40,000 in 2023/24 was well outweighed by the $92,000 spent on the facility.

Charges for services such as showers and caravan power points in the KiwiCamp area had a recent increase and now the community board has agreed to support the council in looking at how charging could be introduced for all spaces.

A recent survey - while not “particularly robust” - showed most people were satisfied with the park and ride and many were open to paying for parking, Welch told the board.

Survey responses suggested most users were willing to pay $5–$10 per day.

A proposal from KiwiCamp, which is already linked to the site, was sent on the day of the meeting. It outlined a system for charging overnight campers, with KiwiCamp providing and managing the necessary equipment.

Welch had told the board the council had “no money” to set up a system for charging.

“There’s no capital funding… to put in any infrastructure at the moment.”

The board also raised the need for more facilities, particularly toilets, to meet growing demand.

However, the KiwiCamp proposal hadn’t been seen by all board members and they agreed to shift further discussions to a public excluded session due to potential commercial sensitivities.

The Park and Ride land is “under cultural redress” so the council will work through any future possibilities with iwi collective Te Korowai o Wainuiārua.

At the meeting, the board also backed working with Te Korowai o Wainuiārua and the National Park Business Association to grow other tourism and business opportunities in the area.

The idea was “to encourage more businesses to open up, businesses that support the cycleways or other products other than ski products”, Welch said.

This story was sourced from official documents and generated using a bespoke AI tool overseen and checked by senior journalists.