The Department of Conservation says it is inquiring into a report of an alleged breach of its weather advisory system for shuttle operators making drop-offs for the Tongariro Alpine Crossing.
In a social media post on the Saturday of Waitangi Day weekend, Ruapehu Scenic Shuttles said while it had cancelled its shuttles due to a DOC hazardous weather warning, another operator ignored this and transported “a total of 13 full buses to the Tongariro Alpine Crossing.”
The company also said that many of those on the shuttles had dropped off several friends at the start.
The post said that at 9.30am a total of 585 people were recorded on the crossing.
In response to this apparent disregard of the agreement between DOC and concession holders, Libby O’Brien DOC operations manager Tongariro said the department took “breaches of the hazardous weather advisory seriously.”
“We have a warning system where we formally write to concessionaires when they breach the hazardous weather warning restriction. This process means those ignoring these warnings and putting visitors at risk are likely to lose their concession or have future concession applications declined if multiple breaches take place.”
She said DOC had been notified of the alleged breach and would be making further inquiries and contact the concessionaire in question.
The operator named by Ruapehu Scenic Shuttles said it did not want to make any comment as the issue was an ongoing conversation happening between professional operators and DOC.
Ruapehu Scenic Shuttles noted that while the day started as bright and calm, cloud developed and the wind picked up.
Owner operator Colin Baker said he was concerned that one service exploited the other operators cancelling in a breach of concession safety rules.
He said his company stood by its decision not to do any drop offs on the day but that really it wouldn’t know whether that decision was justified or not until DOC made available data from its weather station on Mount Tongariro.
Operators realised they were going to lose about half their days, he said.
“We don’t like it but that’s the way it goes.”
Following advisories was part of the concessionaires’ contract with DOC, he said.
Baker noted that Manaaki Rangers* did a good job of informing those determined to continue with the crossing but that it was disappointing how rude some visitors were to operators who cancelled.
“Our pledge is safety it’s not about the money,” Baker said.
In response to questions from LakeFM DOC’s Tongariro Operations Manager Libby O’Brien said “the Tongariro Alpine Crossing can be deadly in challenging weather conditions, and the Hazardous Weather Advisory (HWA) is an important safety tool to protect hikers from being exposed to these high risks.”
The advisory looked at temperature, wind speed and other weather conditions and informed DOC when the weather could lead to not only a bad day out for hikers, but also a potentially risky one, she said.
“While we occasionally review the HWA system and understand that sometimes weather forecasts aren’t 100 per cent accurate, we are confident in how the weather advisory is being applied.
“We are currently investigating the recent incident, alongside past behaviour of operators, and will consider the appropriate action against the operator in question. We have made it very clear to our transport concessionaires that we take these breaches seriously, and we will look to cancel concessions when operators knowingly and repeatedly break the rules.”
While LakeFM understands the maximum wind gust speed which would be allowable as part of the considerations in an HWA was increased before Christmas (from 70kph to 80kph) O’Brien said DOC “don’t have any plans to amend the rules because of this breach.”
*Manaaki Rangers, representing mana whenua, greet walkers as they arrive and leave the track. They are hired by Tiaki Solutions Tūwharetoa using International Visitor Levy funding through DOC.
