German tourists Benedikt Wilken (left) and Thomas Kruse had their campervan locked into the Huka Falls carpark at 6.30pm one evening last week.
German tourists Benedikt Wilken (left) and Thomas Kruse had their campervan locked into the Huka Falls carpark at 6.30pm one evening last week.
Visitors to Taupo's most-visited attraction are finding themselves locked in, without toilets and having to stump up cash to have their vehicles released - 5km from the nearest money machine.
Twilight visitors to Huka Falls are finding their vehicles locked into the carpark when the gates shut at 6.30pm. Many do not speak English and cannot read the gate signs warning of the closing time. To release their vehicle, the security company demands $30 - cash.
The Huka Falls Reserve is managed by the Department of Conservation. Craters of the Moon Trust volunteers are on site to provide vehicle security, sell ice creams and souvenirs and charge 50c to use the toilets.
Air BnB operator Jane Arnott, who was walking her dog when she came across a group of distressed visitors at the carpark recently, says locking in visitors and evidence of people going to the toilet in bushes is a poor reflection on a tourist town like Taupo.
She says the problem is inconsistent with Destination Great Lake Taupo's aim of ensuring positive experiences.
"Huka Falls is an icon that is promoted widely. To lock up this star attraction at 6.30pm, despite daylight saving and school holidays, to have signage in English only and to demand a $30 cash (per car) release fee while denying tourists access to toilets undermines our values as a friendly, exciting and vibrant place to visit," Arnott says.
Visitor Vijay Mahantesh from Auckland visited Huka Falls on Labour Day and says the family was disappointed to find the toilets locked at 6pm, half an hour before the gates closed. He says visitors who couldn't access the toilets had obviously been forced to improvise outside, leaving toilet paper strewn in the bushes.
If a vehicle is locked into the Huka Falls carpark at 6.30pm, a cash only fee of $30 must be paid to release it.
British tourist Rebecca Sutherland was at Huka Falls just after 6.30pm and saw a car that had been locked in.
"The visitors could not speak English and were from Ecuador. They didn't carry cash and were at a loss how to get into town and back given the demands of the security company for cash only. The young woman in particular was very distressed so my friend and I offered to drive them into town and back."
Arnott wrote to DOC and Destination Great Lake Taupo outlining the problems and DOC's Central Plateau operations manager Dave Lumley replied that Craters of the Moon Trust was primarily on site for vehicle security. DOC operated the Huka Falls site "with a number of constraints" and contractors had to be used to deal with after-hours issues.
Gates close at 5.30pm in the winter, extending to 6.30pm once daylight saving starts. Lumley said he hoped that with the support of the Trust the closing time could be extended to 8pm for three months from December 1, as happened last summer.
However he said closing hours were clear and DOC did not see a need to signpost them in different languages.
But Arnott said the potential for crime should be a police issue, not a DOC one, and there were usually visitors milling around, providing safety in numbers.
German tourists Thomas Kruse and Benedikt Wilken were actually happy to find their self-contained campervan had been locked in last week, as it allowed them to spend the night next to New Zealand's most iconic attraction, although Kruse thought it should never have happened.
"6.30pm is too early," he said. "It's really not typical for New Zealand - why would closing a gate lead to less vandalism? People can still enter and if cars are parked at the entrance on the other side of the gate they will still get vandalised."
A visit by the Taupo & Turangi Weekender last week found several spots where toilet paper was strewn in the bushes, clearly indicating a problem with visitors being unable to access the toilets whether through lack of money or outside the opening hours.
