Abel Tasman National Park goes "live" with WiFi

December 30th, 2014
[Project Janszoon press release]

The Abel Tasman National Park has gone "live" with 12 WiFi hotspots now available throughout the Park along with a "virtual visitor centre" for smart phones.

The WiFi network allows visitors to access up-to-date information on weather, tides, points of interest, history, wildlife and plants through a free smart phone app. DOC is also interested in seeing how similar technology could be utilised in other national parks.

The 12 hotspots stretch from Marahau in the South to popular holiday spot Totaranui in the North of the Park and build on a small pilot network that was trialed by Project Janszoon and DOC last summer.

Project Janszoon Director Devon McLean says it makes sense to use technology to engage with the communities that visit and enjoy the Park.

"Seventy percent of visitors to the Abel Tasman National Park are aged between 18 and 35 and we are using the technology they are carrying. While they will not have general internet access over time we plan to add additional information and offer more interactive components," he says.

Department of Conservation Partnerships Manager Martin Rodd says there is a lot of interest nationally about how Project Janszoon is using the WiFi network and smart phone app.

"This technology opens up huge possibilities, from augmented reality to tell the stories of the Park to using real time data capture for our own biodiversity monitoring. Now we have a platform to consider new and exciting ways of interpreting the stories of our national parks to visitors," he says.

Environmental technology company Groundtruth's Daniel Bar-Even says installing the network has been challenging.

"We've had to deal with the rugged landscape, proximity to the sea and wildlife with an interest in destroying parts of the network so it is great to have the 12 hot spots up and running. We can now provide a lot more useful information to Park visitors and 2015 will be interesting as we explore other ways to use the network," he says.

The phone app is designed for Android and Apple devices and can be downloaded wherever the phone has coverage, including the hotspots. It will also work offline and will update itself when in coverage or within range of a hotspot.

To download the phone app go to www.janszoon.org or search for Abel Tasman in the Android or Apple app stores.

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