great barrier island
photograph: RNZ/Carol Stiles
Aotea Great Barrier Island's Hilary Outdoors Education Center will close in May, ending almost 20 years of association with the region.
Hillary Outdoors provides outdoor education to schools and community groups, including the Duke of Edinburgh's Hillary Award programme.
Chief executive Hilary Campbell said increased costs were the reason for the closure.
She said the cost of operating services on the island had tripled since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Fundamentally, since Covid first emerged, operations at Aotea have faced challenges, which at times have affected our ability to deliver our programmes.
“The challenges of operating on a remote island in the Hauraki Gulf have only exacerbated the already difficult economic conditions, resulting in increased costs at nearly every tap in our operations.”
Mr Campbell said he had increased prices for education programs on Great Barrier Island, as well as increased costs for food, accommodation and transport to the island.
She said this has made the island's education programs unaffordable for some, with 36 schools leaving Hilary Outdoors in the past 18 months.
There are over 400 schools affiliated with Hilary Outdoors, 200 of which attend Great Barrier centres.
These students will be transferred to Tongariro Center along with 10 other community groups.
“The community and our school are both heartbroken and motivated to truly understand what a beautiful center this is and to think about how it could work in other centers. .”
Mr Campbell said the Tongariro Center would be expanded temporarily to accommodate students from Great Barrier, but there were no plans to permanently expand the center.
Mr Campbell said the news of the closure had changed the way Great Barrier staff lived and they had all been offered a move to Tongariro, with everyone retaining their current roles.
