The Department of Conservation (DOC) has announced when bookings for popular huts and campsites for the 2022-23 season will open, as well as price increases for some sites.

Bookings will open in the first half of April this year but are staggered to give people a better chance of securing their preferred dates. 

Bookings for South Island huts, lodges and most campsites will open on Tuesday 5 April.

The bookable season runs from 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023.

DOC Heritage and Visitors Director, Steve Taylor says he recommends booking available sites early to secure popular dates and times.  

Great Walks bookings, which include the popular Milford, Routeburn and Kepler Tracks, will open in early May, with dates to be released shortly.  

Meanwhile, standard campsites, including popular Southland camping locations in the Catlins, at Mavora and at Piano Flat, will increase in the new season from $8 to $10 per adult, and from $4 to $5 per child. 

“DOC is focussed on ensuring New Zealanders have a wide and accessible range of opportunities to get into nature,” says Taylor. 

“We provide around 300 bookable and non-bookable campsites that range from free to $25 per person per night.”

“Visitor charges are a way of giving back to nature and mitigating visitor impacts, as well as ensuring the people who use these facilities contribute to the costs of providing them.”

Taylor says DOC has also decided to delay implementing any further use of differential pricing for international visitors (where international visitors pay more than New Zealand residents) beyond the Great Walks. 

“Differential pricing can help us manage visitor pressures and ensure New Zealanders can access popular facilities.” 

“It is already a successful approach on Great Walks, and our preliminary work shows that differential pricing could be applied to other facilities under specific circumstances, such as when there is strong international and domestic demand and the facility is bookable,” he says. 

“We will revisit how to best to extend DOC’s use of differential pricing once sufficient numbers of international visitors return.”

To view all price changes for 2022/23 visit https://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/online-bookings/doc-accommodation-price-changes-2022-2023/