I did follow up the complaint directly with DOC Te Anau by digging around and eventually through a range of contacts found the DOC person's phone number and left a phone message for them. After 36 hours your staff member has just returned my call (11am today).
The problem is that there is delay and there is also a lot of pressure then put on the complainant who reports such problems to expose themselves to the full force of the DOC enquiry process...... when all they want to do is continue on with their holiday.
Two years ago, I was invloved in a similar problem with Awaroa Lodge next to Abel Tasman National Park. Here a tourist reported to me that Awaroa Lodge drove their 4 wheel motor bike for many kilometres illegally along the Abel Tasman National Park Coastal Track from Awaroa to Tonga Bay.
A letter was sent by DOC to Awaroa telling them they were naughty and not to do it again. The tourist who reported this thought it a pathetic response to a blatant breech of the National Park Act but the tourist just wanted to get on with their holiday.
If DOC wants the public to take compliance issues seriously then DOC itself needs to take compliance issues seriously.
1. DOC needs to make itself accessible so that complainants can be confident that any issues they raise will be treated in confidence and followed up promptly.
2. DOC needs to take complaints seriously and not see them just as an opportunity to have a chat to their concessionaire mates and maybe send a letter (wet bus ticket?) and not take any formal action even though they can do so under the National Parks Act.
3. DOC needs then to advise the complainant of what action has been taken when a complaint is followed up. Many complainants say that they simply never hear anything back from DOC subsequently and they therefore think reporting such problems is just a waste of time.
4. Where a complaint is found to be justified then DOC needs to publicise the outcome so that other operators and the public understand that there has been a breach of conservation management and that those actions will not be tolerated.
5. Forest and Bird could also help by perhaps having an "Offences" section in Forest and Bird magazine (such as the USA based National Parks and Conservation Association have in their magazine). here we could report what happens to people who shoot native birds, take dogs into strictly protected areas, illegally land on nature reserves, remove native trees or pick alpine flowers in a National Park. It would send a strong message to the wider community.
