Lake Tekapo tourists' rock cairns frustrate community and church

NZ Herald

26-04-2025

The cairns are the creation of visitors. Piles of rocks that are constructed for the purpose of a photograph on social media. It's not a new phenomenon, nor is it confined to Lake Tekapo, but Evans believes it's getting worse at the tourism hotspot.
'This has happened over summer, there were nowhere near the numbers when I last visited in late November,' says Evans.
Evans' disapproval of the tourist activity is echoed by the neighbouring Church of the Good Shepherd – the attraction that brings visitors to that part of the shoreline.
Church committee member and Lake Tekapo Community Board representative Caroll Simcox says it's frustrating.
'It's not natural. We spend such a lot of time trying to preserve the heritage and the natural landscape around the church. Having said that, they are relatively temporary,' says Simcox.
As evidenced by the comments on Evans' Facebook post, many locals demolish the cairns as they walk through the area. Simcox says nature plays its part as well.
'We know that when a big storm comes up it's going to knock them all down again and we'll wait for them to start again next year,' says Simcox.
Like Evans, Simcox believes it's reached a new level.
'I did notice this year the lakebed is far more damaged or modified than it has been before because the numbers of tourists are up right back to where they were before Covid, possibly even more this year,' says Simcox.
Evans' post garnered widespread support with the majority of responses condemning the rock-stacking practice. Only a few defended the right of tourists to create cairns.
Others reiterated the point that water levels would soon return the shore to a flatter shape, and that the post was making a mountain out of a molehill.
Simcox says she understands both sides.
'People think we're the fun police, but people come here to see what they believe to be a natural landscape. We also acknowledge that there are families down there who have fun building these things and it doesn't seem wilfully destructive, and it doesn't seem like a big deal, but we'd much prefer that the lakebed was just left in its natural state,' said Simcox.
Environment Canterbury (Ecan) doesn't consider building cairns a big deal but it does discourage it.
'While rock stacking isn't a major concern, we encourage visitors to leave the landscape as they found it,' said an Ecan spokesperson.
Simcox says Mackenzie District Council wants to offer the area greater protection, but that may not prevent the rock stacks from reappearing next summer.
'The council's proposing a heritage overlay over all of that area. I know for a fact building cairns is not covered in that,' says Simcox.
With a busy winter of tourism ahead for the district, it is hoping Lake Tekapo water levels rise soon to level the site.
'The Church of the Good Shepherd is sold worldwide as being this iconic site with this wonderful view out of the church window and surrounding us, and the cairns don't actually add to that,' says Simcox.
For the time being, Simcox and the church committee don't plan on spending their free time knocking the piles down.
'We're just going to let nature do its thing,' she says.