In February 2021, Doc dropped the news a toilet was to be installed within 12 months to stop hikers leaving their faecal matter and toilet paper littering the track, following widespread media reports the area turned into "faecal peak".
With the Ben Lomond track attracting up to 60,000 visitors a year pre-Covid, and since numbers were climbing, Doc Wakatipu operations manager David Butt said the new toilet should ease some pressure on the environment.
Luckless in the loo department, however, was The Remarkables’ Lake Alta.
Doc pressed pause putting a back-country bathroom there last year, due to budget and environmental constraints.
Mr Butt confirmed the spot "is not a priority right now", and despite being popular, it did not have the same number of visitors as Ben Lomond and was "close to existing toilet facilities".
They were about an hour’s walk from the lake, in the top car park of The Remarkables skifield.
He said building new infrastructure needed to consider both project cost and the costs of maintenance and management, but "we remain open to working with any group that wishes to assist with costs or ongoing management of any asset on public conservation land".
Mr Butt said solutions "don’t always need to be infrastructure-based".
"It’s not practical or desirable to install a new toilet everywhere - and sometimes it can increase pressure on a site by encouraging more people to visit."
Mr Butt said hikers could do their bit by burying their waste away from tracks, people and water sources, or carrying it out.
