The real test for the system will be when the popular Milford Track opens for bookings on 28 May. Photo: Unsplash / Mac Gaither
The Department of Conservation (DOC) is confident the glitches that have plagued the Great Walks booking system have been fixed but says it will not be complacent.
The booking system has faced multiple crashes and false starts over the past two years, often surrounding the opening of the Milford Track.
In 2023, the website crashed when more than 10,000 people tried to book the Milford Track at the same time, forcing DOC to delay the opening of bookings by a few months.
Bookings opened on Tuesday for backcountry huts, cabins, lodges and cottages, while Great Walk bookings have been spaced out for the rest of the month.
DOC director of heritage and visitors Cat Wilson said there was now a lobby system and the website had been upgraded to improve people's booking experience.
"I'm as confident as I can be that those issues have been resolved and we've had a really smooth morning... where we've seen the queuing system in particular work really well," she said.
It meant that anyone arriving before the start time would be held and then released into the queue to prevent the website from becoming overloaded.
"Experience definitely tells us that we can't be complacent when we open up the Great Walk bookings. We've done a lot of hard work since last year to do everything we can to make the process as smooth and as fair as possible for customers," Wilson said.
About 2750 bookings were made on Tuesday morning, but she said the real test would be when the popular Milford Track opened for bookings on 28 May.
That was later than usual, as the Milford Track was often one of the first to open to allow people who missed out to have a chance to book another Great Walk instead.
"We have made some quite significant changes to our booking system so we did really want to test those on some of the lower volume walks and huts," Wilson said.
She encouraged people to be ready and get there on time if they wanted a spot, but also to check for cancellations if they missed out.
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