The Department of Conservation's new online licensing system is giving the region a bad name among tourists, the owner of a Taupo fly-fishing company says.
A fisher at Lake Taupo. Photo: AFP
Brent Pirie said holidaymakers were having to wait about 25 minutes to be granted a licence to fish for a few hours.
Labour Party MP Ruth Dyson has called the system, which was introduced for the Taupo district in July, a bureaucratic nightmare.
Mr Pirie said it was proving difficult for him because he could no longer order the licences for tourists in advance.
"Well the 25 minutes really is the fact that some of the clients are only doing this for four hours, so by the time get that sorted out, it's cutting into their valuable time, and remembering a lot of these people are actually international visitors," he said.
Ms Dyson said Conservation Minister Maggie Barry should step in and sort out the problem.
"This is just a total disaster, a total failure, and I think the minister should step in and sort it out, and fast," she said.
But DoC spokesperson Nick Hirst said the problems were being exaggerated the system had proven a success for anglers.
It was being monitored and technical updates could be made to improve it, he said.
"When you're buying concert tickets and things like that on any systems around the world, there can be delays if there's heavy demand.
"That happens with all online systems and, again, we apologise if that's been the case.
"We've just introduced the system, and all systems have teething problems."