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The Kawatiri Coastal Trail will be a 55km walking and cycling track between Westport and Charleston on the West Coast.
House prices in parts of the West Coast are through the roof and some cycle trail businesses have reported double the customers since the Covid-19 pandemic began, despite tough times in the glacier country. West Coast Scenic Waterways owner Cindy Hopper said her accommodation and boat cruise business near Hokitika had experienced “huge growth” in the past year. Domestic tourists made up about 85 per cent of her customers before the pandemic hit.
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Cindy and Gavin Hopper moved from Auckland to the West Coast to set up West Coast Scenic Waterways, offering paddle boat cruises and kayaking on Lake Mahinapua.
The glacier region – covering a 100-kilometre stretch of South Westland and including the township of Franz Josef plus Fox Glacier and Lake Moeraki to the south, and Ōkārito and Whataroa to the north – is seeking $35 million in survival support from the Government.
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Tourism businesses around the glaciers in South Westland are pleading for $35m of help from the Government to save their businesses and small communities hit by the lack of overseas tourists. Auckland and Wellington were the most visited by domestic tourists in the second half of 2020, but their proportion of domestic visitors fell a couple of percentage points from 2019.
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Walking access on to Franz Josef Glacier was banned in 2012. It is now only accessible by helicopter. Dire new projections for the region’s tourist sector have this week prompted local leaders to plead for government help. From March last year to September this year the region – including Franz Josef, Fox Glacier, Ōkarito, Whataroa, and Lake Moeraki – is projected to lose 84 per cent of its jobs, two-thirds of its businesses and 30 per cent of its population. One of the biggest drawcards for tourists on the West Coast was the ability to get up close to a glacier. Only a few years ago they could either take a short walk to the terminal faces or a guided walking tour directly on to the ice – options that are now impossible due to safety concerns amid melting ice. The glaciers are now only accessible by air, or viewable from a distance.