Not only is the Conservation Estate large, it is also widely distributed, although a considerable part lies along the Alpine spine of the South Island and is thus remote from the growing population focus of the northern North Island. Virtually all Crown Land is open to unconstrained public access; only some scientific and nature conservation areas are closed and these are only a very small proportion of the total. Additionally, substantial areas of open High Country grassland, usually held as Crown Pastoral Leases, have traditionally been open to recreationists. The twenty metre marginal strip that borders almost all rivers, streams and lakes, the so-called Queen's Chain, has also provided extensive recreational areas and important access routes.

New Zealanders have always had easy access to high quality recreational environments and these have for long been used for tramping, mountaineering, ski-ing, hunting and fishing, and, as a consequence, an outdoor recreational ethic has been a substantial component of the New Zealand culture. The rough but honest bushman has long been an icon of the 'real' New Zealand (Fitzharris and Kearsley 1990). While widespread in the public mind, such a culture has not been universally participated in; there has been something of a tendency for back country users to be young, in their teens and twenties, to be male, Pakeha and to be students or to come from professional backgrounds(Booth and Peebles 1995, Shultis 1991). Nonetheless, this is not an exclusive profile and all ages and social backgrounds can be found; hunting and fishing, in particular, transcend all class and ethnic boundaries. For many, school trips and outdoor education programmes provide a first experience, although it may be one that is hardly ever repeated, and many New Zealanders simply visit the 'front country' that is easily accessible from the roadside. This may be for a walk of only an hour or so, or even less, or they may drive to scenic highlights such as Milford Sound. Others may visit more remote places, such as Doubtful Sound, under the auspices of a commercial operator. Whether they participate or not, however, many, if not all New Zealanders regard free and undisturbed access to the natural heritage of this country as an inalienable right and a part of their Kiwi identity.

Because of the nature of back country recreation, precise participation figures are hard to come by, but the various local and regional studies that are available show little sign of a major shift in the profile of back country users. The Life In New Zealand survey (1991) shows that only two percent report tramping as an activity, although since the relevant question asked for participation in the previous four weeks only, this may under-represent overall participation. There is no documentary evidence to suggest that there has been any great fluctuation in that figure over a considerable period of time, and Cushman (1997) suggests that there has been little change over a ten year period. However, Cushman argues that, in the longer term, a present trend towards increased tramping activity among the more elderly could lead to a 75 percent increase in activity by 2051, leading to nearly 105 000 participants in a four week period. Natural increase and present patterns of immigration, then, are likely to lead to an increase in use of the back country for the foreseeable future. Moreover, the dynamics of national population redistribution may reduce domestic pressures within the South Island, whereas pressures might well increase in such places as the Coromandel and Northland, because of their proximity to the Auckland region.

Native New Zealanders are not the only users of this rich and diverse recreational resource; international tourists have become major visitors to the back country, too (Higham 1996, Kearsley and Higham 1994). In 1975 New Zealand had some 250 000 international tourists; they tended to be Australians and to patronise scheduled coach tours and few left the highways and scenic highlights. Even in 1982, a study of Fiordland National Park, by far the country's largest, showed that overseas back country users were a minority, overwhelmingly Australian (Kearsley 1982, Kearsley and Higham 1994). By 1985, the number of tourists had doubled to half a million, with a much greater range of nationalities and a high level of demand for adventure experiences, such as white water rafting and bungy jumping. The present total is one and a half million, many of whom use the Conservation Estate, especially the more popular walking tracks and scenic destinations. Using the participation rates suggested by the New Zealand Tourism Board (1996), around 37,500 will take part in tramps that last for more than a day, while as many as a half of all visitors will take a shorter duration bush walk.

In recent years, several studies have suggested that the rise of overseas visitors has begun to impact upon the more established and popular parts of the Conservation Estate and to generate perceptions of crowding (Harris 1983, Kearsley 1990, Keogh 1991, Kearsley and O'Neill 1994, Higham and Kearsley 1994, Kearsley 1996), as well as other negative effects. Generally, there have been two sets of consequences. One has been for the Department of Conservation to introduce limited access and overnight hut booking systems on the most heavily used tracks, such as the Routeburn and Milford, and to foreshadow similar restrictions on others. Associated with this has been a wide ranging public debate about the need to charge more for the ever increasing maintenance and facilities provision caused by increasing tourist numbers. While no conclusions have been reached, suggestions that access fees might one day be charged or that facilities charges might rise substantially have caused some considerable popular alarm.

The second consequence has been for the suspicion to arise that some domestic, and, perhaps, some of the more adventurous overseas trampers might be displaced into marginal environments or seasons as a consequence of avoiding perceived crowding. One consequence of this, if it is happening, is increased visitor pressure on more remote locations and displacement of visitors into a limited reservoir of pristine sites, with obvious physical impacts. Similarly, there will be an impact on host community satisfaction as overseas visitors displace domestic recreationists.

This paper now reports some of the results of a questionnaire survey of some 950 back country carried out by the author during the tramping season of 1995/6. Respondents were contacted throughout the whole of the country and in a wide range of back country environments, ranging from the highly popular Great Walks to scarcely used wilderness routes; half were New Zealand residents and the rest international visitors. The aim of the survey was to measure perceptions of crowding, motivations, degrees of satisfaction with the experiences gained and the extent to which displacement and coping strategies were taking place in a large sample.

Motivations

The motives for tramping and otherwise using natural environments have been analysed in many past studies (Moore 1995) and have been found largely consistent over time. Those found in this study, Table 1, are no different. Visitors came to the back country mainly to find naturalness and scenic beauty and to enjoy the outdoors.

Significant numbers came to encounter wilderness, and, while relatively few wished to find total solitude, neither did they wish to meet new people and to make friends.. The companionship of one's own group is desirable, but not that of too many others. In the main, those motivations were satisfied, Table 2.

Many people sought wilderness and, as Kearsley (1990) has shown, they associate it with the National Parks environment. Sixty nine per cent of the sample expected to encounter wilderness conditions; 73 per cent of overseas visitors and 65 per cent of locals expected to do so. However, while most considered that the track that they were on displayed some degree of wilderness character, Table 3, few thought that it was pure or pristine wilderness.

Nevertheless, 71 per cent of the sample said that they had, in fact, encountered wilderness at some point on their trip, so that most of those who expected wilderness conditions did in fact find them. Of the minority who did not, most said it was because tracks were too well formed, signed and hardened. Thirty six per cent of each group cited crowding as detracting from wilderness values and a quarter believed that overnight huts were too comfortable and even luxurious; this was a comment mostly associated with the Great Walks. Boat and aircraft noise was also mentioned by significant numbers.

Degrees of crowding

The overall extent to which crowding was perceived is set out in Table 4, although these aggregate figures are of indicative value only because they cover such a wide range of environments and tramping experience.