White Horse Hill carpark at Aoraki Mount Cook National Park (2024). Photo: Department of Conservation
Paid parking will be trialled at three popular South Island tourist hotspots next summer to help ease visitor pressures and support conservation.
The Department of Conservation plans to introduce the pilot at Punakaiki Pancake Rocks, Franz Josef Glacier, and White Horse Hill at Aoraki Mount Cook National Park.
The 12-month trial is funded by $3.8 million from the international visitor levy and will include car park upgrades.
A packed Franz Josef Glacier car park (2017). Photo: Department of Conservation
DOC heritage and visitors director Catherine Wilson said they were among the busiest car parks and it could not just keep building bigger ones so it needed to innovate.
"Sites like White Horse Hill carpark are already over capacity on peaks days with an estimated 700 vehicles per day. At times there are up to 150 vehicles parked up to 1.5 kilometre down the access road," she said.
A user-pay approach had been mooted as a sensible solution that helped to reduce pressure and generate revenue, Wilson said.
"By contributing to costs at high use sites, visitors give back to the places they enjoy, helping create a more regenerative model to sustain New Zealand's precious biodiversity."
The pilot was in the planning phase and no decisions had been made about pricing or charging, pre-booking and other solutions would be explored for the White Horse Hill carpark, she said.
The findings from the 2025/26 summer pilot would inform how and where the department might charge for carparks in the future.
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