Tomorrow’s trails release, including the Paparoa Track, Routeburn Track, Tongariro Northern Circuit, is also suspended until further notice.
On Thursday, the opening day for the Milford Track’s 2023/24 season, unexpected demand took the bookings site offline.
“Despite a third party IT glitch, the track was almost fully booked out by noon,” said Cameron Hyland, DOC’s bookings services manager.
On April 20 at 9.30am the Milford Track’s almost 7500 bunks were offered to walkers, to book online.
DOC said it expected the track to be in high demand but around 10,000 bookers logged on to the website, taking it offline for over an hour.
The Milford Track’s 8000 bunks were booked out in a record three minutes last year, but took three hours and some frustration to fill this year, with walkers reporting futile attempts to access the unresponsive booking system.
Last week DOC said it had taken measures to stop similar booking issues happen again.
Hyland said the issue had been raised with their IT vendor, but it was “definitely not a good look, internationally or here at home”.
In an updated statement this morning the Booing Manager said that it was the right decision to delay until the issue was resolved.
“We have chosen to postpone the bookings opening dates rather than put people through the stress of dealing with delays and errors.”
Unhappy trampers: Walkers around the world express disappointment
Disgruntled walkers from around the globe were quick to express their dissatisfaction online.
Replying to the Department’s delay announcement on Twitter, some overseas tourists said they were staying up “past midnight” in an attempt to book a place.
“Thousands wake up early and prepare all their details to get a spot on these walks, a Jewel in NZ tourism’s crown,” wrote one unhappy tramper. “Every year their time is wasted and preparation disrespected.”
Others questioned why their IT supplier needed so long to fix the system, as they were trying to plan trips to New Zealand around the walks.
“Please be aware that before we book Great Walks, we cannot plan our trip. We cannot book accomodation, cars, etc.,” one would-be walker responded to DoC’s tweet.
“Are you sure you need two months to fix the IT problem of scaling?”
Who is booking the Great Walks?
The Milford Track was almost fully booked last week with 7400 bunks being sold, despite IT issues.
Cameron Hyland said that increased demand was anticipated with international guests able to book for the first time since the Covid pandemic.
He said Kiwis made 72 per cent of Milford bookings filling 65 per cent of bunks, with internationals making up a sizeable chunk of traffic to the website.
“Bookings were made from 46 countries, made up percentage wise of 65 per cent Kiwis, 13 per cent Australians, 8 per cent from the United States and 3 per cent from the UK.”
DoC said that the unexpectedly high traffic was all natural demand and saw “no evidence of bots, nor any suspicious order-activity”.
The department expects some cancellations and those who missed out on a space on the Milford are advised to watch for openings, with around 16 per cent of bookings being rereleased into the pool last year.
