The Department of Conservation (DoC) is proposing drastic changes for visitors to Mt Cook to keep up with surging tourism numbers.
These include eliminating cars driving into the area altogether and establishing a "park-and-ride" system.
There's a reason Mt Cook had nearly 1 million visitors last year. It's the highest mountain in the country, and on almost every side the Southern Alps scrape the sky.
But during peak season the place is bursting at the seams, and DoC is considering drastic change.
DoC's Brent Swanson says park-and-ride is an option but a contentious one.
"It gives us some options of controlling how people come into the park, climbing onto an electric bus or an electric bike."
A proposal from DoC for the area includes options to remove all visitor vehicle access to the park during peak-use seasons. This is because the park is already close to capacity for servicing the numbers of vehicles entering it in the peak seasons.
It's likely numbers to the area will more than double over the life of this plan.
DoC is looking at a park-and-ride service and it is also looking at installing cycle ways.
Recreational users of the park say a park-and-ride is a common model overseas and inevitable here.
Peter Wilson of the Federated Mountain Club says he can't see another option.
"If we can put the parking outside of the park, it just makes it better for everybody and the environment," says Mr Swanson.
Recent research reveals nearly two-thirds of visitors to the national park are foreigners. Numbers are rising at a fast rate, with nearly a 20 percent growth in visitor numbers one year to the next.
Climate change is also a growing concern with this plan, identifying a further 30 percent loss of ice mass from Mt Cook by 2050.
Public submissions on the draft plan are open until early November.
Newshub.
