Golf event promoter angry as DoC bans balloons in park

Chateau Tongariro, where golfers will line up to hit balls as far as they can along the 380m fairway in front of the hotel. File Picture

The Department of Conservation has banned organisers of a golfing event at Tongariro National Park from flying two hot-air balloons because they would carry advertising slogans.

The department says the 12m balloons with sponsorship logos constitute advertising and are therefore inappropriate for display in the park.

The ban has infuriated Greg Howard, organiser of this weekend's Long Drive World Cup, in which amateur golfers will line up on the Chateau Tongariro balcony to hit golf balls as far as they can along the 380m fairway in front of the hotel.

"Their excuse is just feeble," Mr Howard said yesterday. "It won't spoil it [the park]. It will enlighten it."

Mr Howard said the balloons were a big part of a spectacle that would be filmed by several television crews, showing the park's magnificent mountain scenery to the world.

"The location is amazing. We've got Japanese, Swedish and Australians excited about coming. They want to see the hot-air balloons. We're just saying [to DoC], 'Cut the red tape'."

But DoC was unapologetic about the decision.

Paul Green, DoC conservator for Taupo-Tongariro and the man who had the final say on the matter, said the balloons would "absolutely" look bad to visitors.

"A world heritage site and a national park isn't a Disneyland," he said. "You don't expect it to be a mecca for advertising."

Mr Green rejected a suggestion by Mr Howard that DoC was being bureaucratic and trivial, saying the department accepted that there had to be some advertising in the park but the balloons were on an unacceptable scale.

Sponsorship signs on the Mt Ruapehu skifields, for example, were tailored to a specific size. "We ensure that the advertising is in keeping with the park."

Another DoC staff member said regulations on advertising and promotion were set out in the Tongariro National Park management plan.

Mr Green indicated that a request from Mr Howard and the event sponsor, real estate company Re/Max, to instead display two smaller cold-air balloons, each less than 6m high, was also likely to be rejected.

He said the scale was still unacceptable, but DoC was open to other suggestions from the promoters.