Tongariro Alpine Crossing has to be moved

A long-running and seemingly intractable problem on Mt Tongariro has been resolved - but not everybody is happy about it.
The Department of Conservation's Taupo-nui-a-Tia area office in Turangi has been instructed that the Tongariro Alpine Crossing track on Mt Tongariro must be moved - and soon.
The track, often described as New Zealand's best one-day hike, attracts about 60,000 trampers per year to walk the 17km.
But the track also crosses a privately-owned 39ha island of land in the Tongariro National Park, and while the landowners Ketetahi Springs Trust allowed trampers on the track to cross their land, they objected to commercial guides escorting groups across it.
They compared it to a person making money by conducting a commercial operation in somebody else's backyard and issued two guides with trespass notices.
Commercial guides complained they were paying concession fees to DoC for concessions that didn't even allow them to guide the full length of the track, and claimed DoC did not have a formal access agreement with the trust, a matter DoC would not discuss.
But DoC Taupo-nui-a-Tia area manager Dave Lumley confirmed the office had been asked to move the track and said it was to accommodate the need to allow commercial guiding on the full length of the Tongariro Alpine Crossing.
An alternative route for the track, which did not cross the Ketetahi Springs Trust land, was already being constructed and depending on weather and other factors, it could be finished by early December, he said.
Mr Lumley said the 1.4km-long new section of track would stay on publicly-owned land although it would be steeper than the existing route and wouldn't be up to the same standard as the rest of the track.
However, the walking time would stay the same.
The Ketetahi Springs Trust had been consulted, he said.
The $400,000 needed to move the track is coming from DoC's existing national capital projects budget, which meant other DoC work had to be shelved.
Moving the track to allow commercial guiding was in line with DoC's mandate to make it more straightforward for businesses to operate on conservation land, Mr Lumley said.
"The government of the day has decided we have to make it easier for business and therefore it's quite easy for the guides to go back and say 'There's something here that's preventing us from carrying out our business', so it was always going to be difficult."
Jared Thomas of Tongariro Expeditions, one of the largest commercial operators on Mt Tongariro, was glad something had been done about the problem.
However, the decision was "about 20 years overdue" he said.
"These issues with the commercial guiding across the mountain have been present for many, many years and nothing has been ever done about it," he said.
"It's just the best result for everybody."
Stewart Barclay of National Park-based commercial operators Adrift Outdoors said while moving the track would benefit commercial operators, it was a shame it had come to that.
However, it was the only alternative left for guiding companies to be able to guide on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, he said.
"It's a hell of a waste of money considering they just spent $100,000 not long ago on [upgrading] the existing track, but given that there's no agreement, this is the only alternative really."
The Ketetahi Springs Trust did not respond to requests for comment, however it is understood to be upset that cultural values of the local tangata whenua are being ignored.