Ten years ago the Paparoa Track was just a feasibility study. Now it is one of the most in-demand multi-day walks in the country.
The three-day walk from Blackball to the West Coast at Punekaiki joined the Department of Conservation’s trail network as the 10th and newest Great Walk in 2019. The 56 bunks are already among the most subscribed trail lodgings in the country.
With the Pike29 Memorial extension set to open this summer, DoC says there could be room to add camping and hut extensions.
“The Paparoa Track is still in its infancy and the first two years were affected by Covid, severe weather and closures from roadworks,” says Mark Davis, Western South Island director for DoC.
The track was partially opened in 2019 and closed after only a few weeks due to trail subsidence and washout.
The shared trails - for both hiker and biker - mean much of the track is still ‘bedding down’, says Davis. However, that hasn’t stopped the Paparoa from being a huge success.
“In terms of hut bed nights, the track has been one of the higher-performing Great Walks comparable with the Kepler and Routeburn. When we did the track feasibility study in 2015 we set an optimistic target of 2500 hut bednights for the first year of operation,” says Davis.
“We far exceeded that.”
There were 6620 bednights in 2021/22 alone. Pre-season bookings for the last two summers lept 54 per cent, from 3043 to 4691 bunk nights.
With additional trail coming online for the end of the year, DoC is reviewing capacity on the route.
The Pike29 Memorial will add an additional 10.8km of track, in partnership with Ngāti Waewae and the families of the 29 miners who died in November 2010.
However, Davis says it will take time to review how trail use changes with day and overnight visitors.
“Because of that we’re unlikely to make any big decisions on hut extensions or provision of camping sites until after June 2025.”
Although it’ll never see the same capacity as the Abel Tasman or Kepler Tracks, the Paparoa’s walkers are consistently 90 per cent-plus domestic New Zealand trampers. It may have struggled with trail repairs, but the Paparoa has been pandemic-proof.
“Despite the pandemic it was a top-performing Great Walk during 2021-22 as many New Zealanders wanted to check out the country’s newest great walk,” said Davies.
As the only Great Walk open to mountain biking year-round, its patronage has included a fairly large proportion of cyclists, at 26 per cent.
The bunk nights do not take into account day riders who cross the 55km trail. There are an additional 1000 through-riders a year on the Paparoa.
“Interestingly the Paparoa Track is attracting an older age profile with 50-55 per cent of visitors in the 50–69-year age bracket compared with a median age of 31 on the Great Walks generally.”
The top demographics for Paparoa come from Canterbury, Wellington, Nelson/Tasman, Auckland and Otago.
The number of international visitors is expected to grow up to 40 per cent by 2025, although at around 600 overseas trampers, this is still a small share of the bunks