Kepler Track. Photo: 123rf.com
Trampers will have to wait until June before they can book on one of the country's iconic Great Walks due to technical issues.
Last Thursday, the bookings website crashed for several hours after 10,000 people tried to book on the Milford Track just after opening.
It was effectively sold out within hours despite the system crashing.
Bookings for the Kepler Track, Abel Tasman Coast Track, Rakiura Track, and Whanganui Journey were meant to open at 9.30am this morning.
Before bookings opened, the Department of Conservation told RNZ it was not expecting another Great Walk booking system crash, saying their server capacity remained scaled up.
However, multiple attempts to reserve a spot failed until the website was directed to a new page detailing the delay.
The Department of Conservation has since confirmed bookings planned for today and tomorrow will be delayed until June.
This will also impact the Paparoa Track, Routeburn Track and Tongariro Northern Circuit
The dates for these new release dates have yet to be confirmed.
In a new statement, DOC booking services manager Cameron Hyland said the new dates would be posted on its website and via social media later this week.
"Due to ongoing technical issues being worked on by our IT vendor, we have chosen to postpone the bookings opening dates rather than put people through the stress of dealing with delays and errors."
In an earlier statement, Hyland said a systems crash was definitely not a good look, but the underlying cause has been addressed.
"We had a smooth opening for the Milford Track last year, and we took all the same steps as well as some new ones to make sure we were as prepared as possible - so we're extremely disappointed to have experienced this new issue.
"We'll be having tough conversations with our vendor about what we can do over the coming months to ensure that, when we open next time, they are confident we're not going to have this happen again."
Tourism operators annoyed at glitches
Tourism operators are voicing their frustration over the delays to the Great Walks bookings.
Abel Tasman Guides director Wally Bruce said operators booked their clients' spots at the same time as everyone else.
"It was a fail on DOC's behalf. This booking system has been in for about four to five years. It was bought from the US. It looks like they bought a lemon," Bruce said.
He believed the technology should have been tested and glitches found well before it was opened to the public.
"We're going to have two months more bookings and so the competition is going to be harder and fiercer, and the earlier they can do it, the better it is. But undoubtedly there will be people disappointed when they finally open."
He questioned why DOC did not inform the public until after bookings opened.
DOC booking services manager Cameron Hyland said its system vendor assured the department that the issue that caused the system meltdown last week had been resolved after changes were made and additional testing carried out.
"Based on the results of that testing, we were assured that the issue had been resolved, and decided to proceed with opening bookings for the remaining walks," Hyland said.
"Unfortunately, shortly before bookings were scheduled to open this morning, the vendor alerted us to another issue. We decided to postpone the opening of the bookings, and closed the system temporarily so users were unable to book while we updated the online information.
"We are incredibly frustrated to have experienced another issue, and we know it's been disappointing for many people who were ready to book this morning.
"However, we believe we made the right decision postponing bookings, both to minimise ongoing frustration for users and to allow time for an investigation into the new issue."
The booking system vendor is expected to provide DOC with a detailed analysis of what went wrong on Thursday.
"We are also working to confirm what other work the vendor needs to do so that we have assurance bookings for the remaining walks will run smoothly once we open them."