It’s Wednesday, and the most useful story for anyone routing guests around the South Island this week is a road that is open, but only just. Here’s what’s moving.
SH6 between Makarora and Hāwea is still convoys-only on weekdays, and Haast businesses say the signs are telling people it is shut
State Highway 6 between Makarora and Hāwea closed on 28 August after a winter storm brought down slips and rockfalls and inundated bridges. It reopened a few days later for escorted convoys only. NZTA’s published weekday timetable runs three convoys each way:
- Southbound from Makarora village at 7.15am, returning north from the Isthmus Peak Track car park at 8am
- Northbound from Isthmus Peak at 12pm, returning south from Makarora at 12.45pm
- Northbound from Isthmus Peak at 5.30pm, returning south from Makarora at 6.15pm
On the last two weekends the road opened to all traffic from 8am to 5.30pm, closing overnight because fresh slips could come down unseen in the dark. The decision to open last weekend was made at 1.30pm on the Friday, which is not much notice for anyone trying to sell a Saturday.
The cost is landing at the Haast end. Nick Kummer, who owns the Hard Antler Bar and Restaurant, told RNZ he has lost about $30,000 since the closure. Over the 18 days to 15 September that is $30,000 divided by 18, or roughly $1,670 a day. Vivienne Beagle, who owns the Aspiring Court Motel and Haast Lodge, is taking cancellations and pointed out that the electronic sign leaving Haast says the road is closed, with nothing about convoys. NZTA’s lower South Island area manager Chris Harris accepted the agency needs to rethink its signage so the convoys are clear.
On the repair, Harris described the damage as “on a scale unprecedented in recent history”. He put the material on the highway at about 80,000 cubic metres across 105 separate locations. NZTA’s own early bulletins counted about 30 slips, so the 105 is best read as places where debris landed rather than 105 separate slips. RNZ reports the agency hoped to restore full access in six to eight weeks, without saying where the clock starts. Counted from the 28 August closure, six weeks is 9 October and eight weeks is 23 October. Counted from the RNZ report on 15 September, it is 27 October to 10 November.
The practical read for anyone with a Queenstown or Wānaka to West Coast itinerary: the road is passable, on a timetable. A midday or 5.30pm convoy slot can be built into a day. Guests who look at a map app or the sign at Haast and conclude the pass is shut will simply route around it or cancel, which is the loss Kummer is describing.
Stat of the day
80,000 m³
Roughly how much material came down onto SH6 between Makarora and Hāwea, spread across 105 locations, according to NZTA's lower South Island area manager. (NZTA, via RNZ)
Source: RNZ, NZTA Journey Planner, NZTA via Scoop
Auckland’s international traffic stood still in August, and Queenstown’s international traffic grew 18 percent
Auckland Airport’s August traffic update, filed with NZX on Monday evening, put international passenger movements at 785,000, in line with August 2025. Airlines flew 3 percent fewer international seats and filled more of them, with the load factor up 2.6 percentage points to 81 percent.
By nationality, excluding transit passengers, the movements through Auckland went like this:
- United States nationals: up 14 percent
- Chinese nationals: up 9 percent
- Australian nationals: down 2 percent
- New Zealand nationals: down 3 percent
- United Kingdom nationals: down 5 percent
Long-haul routes carried 2 percent fewer passengers on 6 percent fewer seats. Short-haul routes carried 1 percent more on 1 percent fewer seats.
The same update reports Queenstown, where total passenger movements rose 8 percent, international movements 18 percent, and domestic movements 1 percent. The update does not join these two sets of numbers up, and it does not say where Queenstown’s international passengers came from. But Queenstown’s international schedule is built around flights from Australia, and Australians travelling through Auckland fell 2 percent in the same month that Queenstown’s international traffic grew by nearly a fifth. The likeliest reading is that the ski-season Australian is flying straight into the mountains and skipping the gateway.
The domestic side is the part for regional operators to watch. Auckland’s domestic movements fell 5 percent on 8 percent fewer seats, and regional routes fell 10 percent on 11 percent fewer seats. Those load factors are high (86 percent domestic, 84 percent regional), so this is not weak demand. It is fewer seats, and the people who miss out are the ones who book late.
Source: Auckland Airport via NZX
Stats NZ’s card data agrees with ANZ’s: August was a bad month for hospitality in particular
Stats NZ’s electronic card transactions for August, out yesterday, have seasonally adjusted hospitality spending down $25 million, or 1.7 percent, on July. Last week this briefing reported ANZ’s own card data showing hospitality down 1.0 percent for the month. Two different data sets, two different sizes of fall, same direction.
The official release makes it easier to see that hospitality was not just caught in a general slowdown. All figures seasonally adjusted, August against July:
- Total card spending: down $48 million, or 0.5 percent
- Hospitality: down $25 million, or 1.7 percent
- Durables: down $26 million, or 1.6 percent
- Fuel: up $6.4 million, or 1.3 percent
- Services: up $4.7 million, or 1.2 percent
- Hospitality plus durables: down $51 million, which is more than the whole net fall
- Less fuel and services rising by $11.1 million: $39.9 million
- Everything else: about $8 million net down, making up the rest of the $48 million
Hospitality’s fall ran at more than three times the rate of total spending, 1.7 percent against 0.5 percent. Fuel spending going up while everything discretionary went down is consistent with what NZ Herald’s headline on the same release attributes to rising fuel prices biting households. For a café or a restaurant, that is money that used to come in the door now going into the tank on the way past.
Source: Stats NZ, Stats NZ release via Mirage News, NZ Herald
AJ Hackett wants to sell the Sky Tower’s newest ride to observation towers overseas
AJ Hackett Bungy New Zealand opened SkyRide on the outside of Auckland’s Sky Tower on 26 June. It lifts riders 192 metres at about six metres a second and brings them back down at up to 100 kilometres an hour, and the company calls it the world’s highest lift-and-descent ride. It sells from $330 for an adult.
Less than three months on, a release yesterday pitches SkyRide as a system for other people’s buildings. The company says it has been designed to scale to heights of up to 600 metres, and makes the commercial case bluntly: at many towers around the world, it says, observation deck visitation “has plateaued or declined”. The offer is to turn a deck that people visit once into something with a second, much pricier ticket.
This is the bungy playbook again. A New Zealand operator builds an adventure product at home, proves it with paying customers, and then exports the know-how. It is also a more interesting export than another inbound campaign, because it earns from other countries’ visitors without anyone flying here.
The release is thin on the parts that would show it is more than an ambition. It names no engineering partners, no towers in discussion, no licensing terms and no rider numbers from Auckland’s first three months. Until a second tower signs, this is a product looking for a buyer.
Source: AJ Hackett Bungy NZ via Scoop, AJ Hackett launch release via LiveNews, AJ Hackett Bungy NZ
Coming up
- 16 September The Banks Peninsula marine mammal permit moratorium rolls over for ten years, and the permanent hoiho set-net closure takes effect
- 17 September Stats NZ releases GDP for the June 2026 quarter
- Mid-September Tourism New Zealand’s online AI collective forum for operators
- 18 September TrailLite launches the Roadcraft
- 24 September Air New Zealand’s annual shareholders’ meeting, online, where Larry De Shon retires from the board and Campbell Wilson and Robert McDonald stand for election. The House rises ahead of the general election, and new visitor visa applications must be started in the enhanced Immigration Online system
- 30 September Feedback closes on Goat Island parking pricing, and AAT Kings early-bird pricing closes on the 2027/28 season
- September Avani Queenstown opens on the Lake Wākatipu waterfront. Cabinet’s decision on essential air route funding for Originair’s Westport service is still unannounced
- 1 October Parliament is dissolved, with writ day on 4 October and nominations closing at noon on 8 October
- 8 October The old visitor visa forms close and remaining drafts are deleted
- October Christchurch Airport’s annual meeting and SkyCity’s annual meeting
- 18 October Cardrona’s extended closing date
- 26 October Voting opens for the general election
- 28 October Air New Zealand’s first direct Christchurch to Singapore service
- 4 November Tourism Summit Aotearoa and the New Zealand Tourism Awards, Te Pae Christchurch
- 7 November General election
- 28 and 30 November Air New Zealand’s first direct Christchurch services to Narita and Perth
- 30 November DOC’s control window in the Wilberforce and Mathias closes, and Wairere Falls Track is due to reopen
- Mid-December Mangatepopo Track reopens, restoring the Tongariro Northern Circuit loop
- 18 December Oturere Hut and campsite open for bookings
- End of 2026 DOC and the Backcountry Trust aim to sign a national operational agreement on the hut and track network
- 19 to 25 April 2027 Conservation Week, finishing on ANZAC Day
- 1 July 2027 The date National’s council funding, and ACT’s Local Tourism Dividend, would both start
- Late 2027 The Arawa Park Hotel reopens as the Rotorua Marriott Hotel, the first Marriott Hotels-branded property in New Zealand
That's today's briefing. The Shoulder Season is back every weekday morning.