DOC Hut & Campsite Bookings 2026: How to Book, Fees, Dates

Where and how to book

Go to bookings.doc.govt.nz, create an account and log in before you search. Find the hut, campsite or Great Walk, choose dates and party size, add the vehicle registration for a campsite, and pay by Visa or Mastercard. Full payment is taken at the time of booking and every price includes GST. DOC visitor centres can book many of the same places in person or by phone, for a $10 service fee.

The confirmation email is the booking. Download or print it before you leave reception, along with any pass, because rangers and hut wardens can ask for it and most DOC huts and many campsites have no signal. Bunks in bookable huts are not allocated, so a booking buys a bed rather than a particular one, and campsite bookings without numbered sites let you pick from whatever pitches are free when you arrive.

Great Walks 2026/27: when bookings opened and what is left

DOC opened 2026/27 Great Walk bookings in a staggered run: Paparoa Track on 12 May, Milford on 13 May, Abel Tasman Coast on 14 May, Routeburn on 15 May, Kepler on 19 May, Heaphy, Whanganui Journey and Lake Waikaremoana on 20 May, and Tongariro Northern Circuit and Rakiura on 21 May, each at 9:30 am. Other huts and lodges opened on 12 May, North Island campsites on 14 May, South Island campsites on 15 May and Tōtaranui on 22 May. The Hump Ridge Track is booked separately through its own trust.

DOC's figures from the 2025/26 summer suggest the Milford, Abel Tasman and Kepler peak dates are the hardest to find: huts ran at around 95 per cent occupancy on Milford and Abel Tasman and 91 per cent on the Kepler. DOC points walkers with flexible plans towards the Heaphy, Lake Waikaremoana and the Whanganui Journey, which often have space, and says many campsites still had good availability when huts were full. On opening days a virtual queue gives everyone in the lobby at 9:30 am a random place, so arriving early does not help, but anyone logging in after 9:30 joins the back.

Fees by category, and how they are charged

DOC charges per person per night, not per site, so four adults at a $15 standard campsite pay $60. Basic campsites and basic huts are free. Standard campsites cost $10 to $20 an adult and serviced campsites $25 unpowered. Standard huts are $15 all year, and serviced huts $25 from May to September but $28 to $34 from October to April, highest on Friday and Saturday nights over December to February. Camping beside a serviced hut costs half the hut fee: $12.50 from May to September and $14 to $17 from October to April. Great Walk prices depend on the track, the season and whether you are a New Zealand resident: between 1 November and 30 April a night in a Milford Track hut is $106 for a resident adult and $152 for an international adult.

Residency has to be provable. The resident rate applies to New Zealand citizens and people ordinarily resident here, and DOC can ask for a passport, driver licence or similar on the track; a party that cannot show it pays the difference plus $50 a person. Turning up without a valid booking at a bookable place costs more again: DOC's penalty rate is the normal fee plus a full adult fee. Booking a campsite you do not intend to use, or holding a pitch with an empty tent, is charged at two adults.

Hut Pass, Campsite Pass or pay per night

The Backcountry Hut Pass costs $160 for an adult for 12 months and covers most serviced and standard huts, plus most campsites outside serviced huts. At $15 a night in a standard hut it pays for itself after 11 nights, or after 5 to 7 serviced-hut nights depending on the season. Some bookable huts accept it, entered when you book, and in non-bookable huts you write your name and pass number in the hut book. Great Walk huts are priced separately, and DOC publishes a list of huts where the pass is not accepted.

The Campsite Pass costs $295 for an adult for one year and covers most DOC campsites, bookable and not, for up to 7 nights in any 30 days at a single campsite, plus $3 per pass holder per night at a powered site. At bookable campsites you must still book through the system before you arrive, or pay a $10 fee and risk being turned away if the ground is full. Neither pass is a reservation, and neither gives you priority at a first-come hut or campsite, so for a single short trip, paying per night is usually cheaper.

Which huts and campsites are first come, first served

Most of DOC's network still cannot be booked: DOC says the majority of its roughly 950 huts are non-bookable. In KiwiCamping's DOC data, checked on 24 August 2026, that included 350 basic huts and bivvies and 401 standard huts. Basic huts are free. For a non-bookable standard hut you pay with a Backcountry Hut Ticket or a Hut Pass, and paper tickets go in the honesty box at the hut. Huts stay unlocked as emergency shelter in bad weather, but shelter is not a bunk, so carrying a tent on busy tracks is sensible.

Two changes land this season. Since 1 October 2026 every DOC serviced hut is on the booking system, and Serviced Hut Tickets are being retired; tickets already bought can be applied to a booking until they expire. From 1 November 2026 Backcountry Hut Tickets for non-bookable huts can be bought on DOC's online booking system, still $15 an adult a night for a standard hut; they are payment, not a booking, and paper tickets stay valid until 1 November 2027. On the campsite side, 110 of the 287 DOC campsites in KiwiCamping are self-registration: mostly basic and backcountry sites, plus some standard ones where you fill in an envelope and pay on arrival.

Changing or cancelling a booking

Cancel on the day you book or the following day, provided arrival is more than two days away, and DOC charges nothing. From 48 hours after booking to 15 days before arrival the fee is 10 per cent. Inside 14 days it climbs by type: huts 20 per cent, then 30 per cent from three days out; campgrounds 20 then 75 per cent; Great Walks 50 then 75 per cent; lodges, cabins and sole-occupancy huts 100 per cent. Cancelling the day before, on the day or after it forfeits the whole amount, and so does a no-show.

If you miss the first night of a multi-night booking and do not contact the site office within 24 hours, DOC cancels the rest without a refund. Weather refunds are not automatic. If DOC closes the place or cancels your stay, for example for a storm, flooding or an orange or red MetService warning for the area the day before, email DOC's booking team within 7 days, before changing the booking yourself, for a full refund of the unused nights or, if your stay has not started, a transfer to available dates in the same season. If the weather is merely bad and the place stays open, normal cancellation fees apply, which is why DOC recommends travel insurance.

When the hut or campsite you want is fully booked

Check the same place again on other dates, especially shoulder-season weeks either side of the school holidays, and look at campsites: DOC says many still had good availability when huts were full, although the Milford and Paparoa tracks have none. Swap a booked-out Great Walk for one with more room, or walk a non-bookable hut track nearby. DOC's own advice is to keep checking over the following months, because people cancel and even the Milford Track has cancellations across the year.

For a vehicle-based night, a holiday park or a self-registration DOC campsite is the realistic fallback. KiwiCamping shows every DOC hut and campsite in its data with its category, fee and whether it takes bookings, alongside holiday parks you can book through BookIt in the app, so you can find the nearest alternative without signal. DOC places in the app need the Pass; BookIt stays are free to browse and book.

Before you go

Read the place's own DOC page as well as the booking: it lists the facilities, whether water is treated, fire and dog rules, road access and current alerts. Track and road closures after storms are common, and the alert on the DOC page outranks anything you booked months ago. Check-out is 10 am, check-in runs from 2 pm to 8.30 pm, and quiet hours are 10 pm to 7 am unless the site sets different ones.

Pack for the place rather than the booking. A bed in a serviced hut still needs a sleeping bag, food, a stove for most huts and warm layers, and a booked campsite does not include the hut beside it. Take all rubbish out, fill in the hut book, and leave the bunk or pitch ready for the next party.

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