D.O.C. Business Model NZ 2013 - ODT

Letter to the Editor Posted 17 May 2013 

It is great to see that the Department Of Conservation has brought competition to the Motor park industry in Southland and West Otago.
They have been very pleased with the numbers of tourists they have been getting in there upgraded camp sites and plan to build more.
I have always wrote that the Department should be more proactive with tourism in the Park and I think it would be great to apply this new found energy to
opening up some NEW attractions as opposed to going up against small businesses like motor parks or perhaps going up against the Big Players who are overcharging tourists Inside the D.O.C Estate itself.  I suppose campsites take the least imagination and effort than to run I mean to say a Proper Nature Trip on Doubtful Sound or
A Cycle Trail from the Hollyford to the Cascade or even the Grand Fiordland Track might strain the Imagination skills to get them up and running as Money Makers but only the Department has the staying Power to pull them off. The Big Private Tourism Players just don’t get it. They spoil everything for profit, take Milford Sound, They Spoiled it, and now people say they don’t like it any more. Yes the Figures Bear this out. It may still be Highly Scenic But it Sucks in the Ambience Department.
If DOC is doing a reshuffle, GET MORE VISIONARIES on board. Have a crack at it! That Competition would do us all good.

Duel Names for Aoraki Mount Cook

By Matthew Littlewood Fairfax News NZ.

Ngai Tahu's proposal for several new "dual names" in the Aoraki-Mt Cook region has received the formal sign-off.

Under the changes, "Mt Cook Range" would become "Kirikirikatata/Mt Cook Range", "Tasman Glacier" would change to "Haupapa/Tasman Glacier", while "Aroarokaehe Range" would be assigned to a currently unnamed section of the Southern Alps.

The New Zealand Geographic Board approved the changes at last week's meeting, after it received only three submissions on the proposal - all in favour. The three official names will be gazetted and publicly notified this month.

Ngai Tahu's submission said there was general acceptance of dual names that came about as a result of the 1998 Ngai Tahu Treaty settlement.

It hoped the proposal would accommodate what were considered the original Maori names.

Ngai Tahu kaiwhakahaere (chairman) Sir Mark Solomon was pleased with the decision.

"The Aoraki area is at the centre of our Ngai Tahu creation mythology and our tribal identity, and the formal recognition of our traditional names with Aoraki and its surrounding area is a decision we fully support," he said.

According to the background information provided in the submission, Kirikirikatata was the grandfather of Aoraki.

Both Aoraki and Kirikirikatata turned into a mountain (Aoraki-Mt Cook) and its associated range (Mt Cook Range).

Haupapa is a descriptive name for the ice on Tasman Glacier, which was passed on to an early recorder of Maori oral history, Herries Beattie, by a Ngai Tahu elder. The name is used widely throughout the Ngai Tahu community.

Aroarokaehe was the wife of Mauka Atua and, with Kirikirikatata and Aoraki, was a passenger on the Arai-te-Uru waka. Mauka Atua became a peak on the Ben Ohau Range, while Aroarokaehe was persuaded by Kirikirikatata to move next to himself and Aoraki.

In May last year, the New Zealand Geographic Board confirmed the one-kilometre-long ridge that runs from a snow col below Mt Haidinger to the summit of Douglas Peak, on the main divide, would be named Ayres Ridge after the late climber Harry Ayres.

In December 2011, Land Information Minister Maurice Williamson declared the South Ridge would be renamed Hillary Ridge, after the late Sir Edmund. The renaming became official last year, quashing a submission to name the High Peak of Mt Cook "Hillary Peak" for his 60th Anniversary. 

Radio NZ - Everest Conquest turns 60

electronically dispatched 28th May 2013

About this time back in 2010 I put in a bid to Mark the Hillary Conquest of Everest with place names on Mount Cook
But it got lost in the media backwaters. Basically some of us would have liked to change what is known as High Peak of Mt Cook to Hillary Peak.
And as homage to Maori history, rename the Mount Cook Range the Aoraki Range into the Bargain.. The whole thing came unglued when Hillary Ridge got Gazetted
So now there is no big event for the Big 60th.

However they took a look at the Aoraki Range suggestion and replaced it with the tongue twisting Kirikirikatata range and that was gazetted in April as a duel name this year.  So Hillary did have some effect on the summit of Mount Cook albeit through Ngai tahu’s back door...

The media was a bit busy with my Tolkien Mountain Geographic Board saga then so probably couldn’t cope with more than one story at a time.

I still think that it would have been easy to replace the three purely descriptive names on Mount Cook’s Summit like so: Low Peak to Lowe Peak, Middle Peak with Mallory Peak and High Peak with Hillary.... It would have been good to slip Tenzing in too somewhere on a feature...

Too bad it would have made a great 60th anniversary moment But then the Geographic Board members are not selected for theatrics... ?

Mountain Scene: Queenstown Tree Poisoning

Letters to the Editor the Mountain Scene Newspaper 9th May 2013

Sir,
I use to live in the Queenstown Area in the Golden days of 1971 before there was such concepts as Airpoints Monorails, Condominiums or Wilding Pines.
I those days the Conifers in the Town Belt where considered part of the nice Ambience of the place as was the Old Gold Rush heritage Buildings and the Humble Holiday Batches that followed.

Every time I visit Queenstown Now I feel Sickened at the damage that has been inflicted on the Town due to Gross Stupidity and Lack of Vision.

Mark Wilson Is correct, the Dead Trees on the Town Skyline are an example of this. And it is going to take Decades before nature can correct this Blunder, That this same scenic Vandalism is taking place in Skippers and Roaring Meg. It is just mind numbing!

Ironically it is Wilding Humans that are the worst thing Queenstown has to deal with Not Trees.. The Hills today are “Blemished” with truly unsympathetic architecture sprouting willy-nilly everywhere...  and now The Once Beautiful Edwardian Style 5 mile shopping Centre Project has turned into something akin to an oversized somewhat skewed out Shipping Container on Steroids!

As for Wilding Pines... Let’s not get obsessive and Panic.. If you can’t be bothered aborting them out as seedlings than you are just too late.

Find some other more worthy Battles: Broom, Gorse, Wasps.

As for Tourists, 99 percent are not botanists and never heard of Wilding Conifers or even care for that matter. Unless they are all Poisoned and Dieing

ODT: Queenstown NZ's Best New Hope

Sent Monday 6th May 2013 - Public Opinion Otago Daily Times.

I have just come home from a visit to the Glenorchy / Kinloch  area and I was curious to see what effect all the Years of Film and Now Television was had on the area,
I have to report that They are a bit slow keeping up with the flow Especially in the Case of the Road to Paradise that People not only associate with The BBC TV Series “Top of the Lake” but it leads to Mt Earnslaw the South Island Mountain most associated with the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit Movies which is almost undrivable to ordinary cars. Personally I think this area is going to need some sort of “Make Over” are I wonder if it might even be wise to upgrade the Earnslaw Burn Valley Track to a (Gasp Horror) scenic Drive.. It is a Valley with the most intensive Glacier and Waterfall experience you can have in one spot and it's a Day out from Queenstown. Much nicer than any Monorail of Tunnel trips and it would add an extra day stay to the Queenstown experience instead of taking business off of the Te Anau region.
Best of all, No National Parks would be Harmed! Tourist Paradise? Maybe, but at the moment the Road to Paradise is paved with Pot Holes..