Water Treatment in New Zealand – Advice requested

Your best bet might be to find out who administers the area and ask them for water quality test reports.  Results can change over time.  I’ve done this in Canadian National parks with some mixed success.

Water quality tends to be a statistical risk thing.  Just because someone didn’t get sick doesn’t mean the 20th or 200th person won’t.  Unless you’re really sure that the quality is stable (and anecdotes won’t tell you this), I’d bring the filter

I lived/worked in NZ for about 1.5 years, 2019/20. most Kiwi’s I worked and recreated with never bothered to treat their water in the backcountry. I used Aquamira, my students on trips used Aquamira. No issues either way… Easy enough to bring your preferred treatment method?

Make sure your backpacking equipment is very clean when you arrive, their bio-controls are strict and fines get steeper each year. Lots of people forced to scrub their boots/tents in Aukland’s airport, instead of sitting at their gate.

I live in New Zealand. I have used the hut system for the last 40 years without issues. Most facilities have that warning but I believe it’s more to cover DOC (department of Conversation) arse! I wouldn’t bother treating water at the huts. I don’t treat water from other sources either and have (touch wood) never gotten ill, however with more and more people using the tracks and facilities it could be worth it.

Hope this helps.

Cheers, Scott

Most huts that I visited this year while hiking on the Te Araroa collected their water from the roof into a water tank. While the fresh rain water off the hut roofs looked cfine, I still used my SteriPen to treat all water. My reasoning for that was that any bird poop, etc. that collects on the roof between rainfalls would be washed into water tank and potentially contain salmonella, etc. When I’m so heavily invested in a long trek, I find the extra work of treating my drinking water relatively neglectable, compared to the risk of having to abandon the trip due to an infection.

This summer on the AT I met endless numbers of hikers who caught norovirus despite using hollow-fiber filters, like Sawyer or BeFree. They weren’t aware that those filters catch only bacteria and bigger germs, but not viruses. Their sicknesses were debilitating and sometimes required rescue from the trail and application of infusions. The SteriPen kept my drinking water safe from viruses as well and I gladly dealt with having to keep it charged – just like my iPhone, my inReach, my headlamp, and my Fenix watch.