Great Walks bookings to open, DOC assures technical problems fixed

Tourism businesses are looking forward to securing Great Walks bookings after months of technical glitches and false starts.

Bookings for Great Walks open from today, beginning with the Tongariro Northern Circuit.

The Department of Conservation's booking system had been having technical glitches since April, causing dates to be pushed back.

DOC has assured trampers the problems have been fixed.

Stewart Island tourism business Ruggedy Range Wilderness Experience operator Furhana Ahmad said the delays had been disappointing.

"I'm really looking forward to getting things sorted out for my customers who have been waiting. I'd have ideally liked this process to have taken place in April.

"I'm hoping that things are working all right and we will be able to utilise the system and try and move on, because this is really putting us back a lot with bookings."

Hiking New Zealand co-owner Anne Murphy hoped the technical problems with DOC's booking system had been ironed out, and that it would run smoothly on Tuesday.

"A number of our DOC hut and campsite bookings form part of much longer trips throughout New Zealand, so we've been gathering bookings for these itineraries for some time now, and obviously they've all been conditional on us being able to secure those places.

"We're very much looking forward to being able to place our bookings today."