FAQ
Yes, for hut and campsite stays during the Great Walks season (roughly late October to April). This is not optional, and there's no walk-up option once a hut is full. Milford, Routeburn and Kepler regularly sell out within an hour of the season's bookings opening in May, sometimes in under 15 minutes for peak dates; Waikaremoana, Tongariro Northern Circuit, Whanganui Journey, Paparoa and Rakiura are far less contested and can often still be booked weeks or months later in the same season.
The 11 Great Walks are DOC's flagship, most heavily formed and maintained tracks, serviced by staffed huts with cooking facilities in season, and gated by a paid booking system. The thousands of other DOC tramping tracks and routes range from easy walking tracks to advanced alpine routes, generally use a cheaper backcountry hut ticket system (or are free), have no booking requirement or capacity limit, and get less frequent maintenance and ranger presence, which also means less crowd management, not necessarily less difficulty.
Most of the walks on this page under an hour are formed, signed tracks fine in normal outdoor shoes. A few, though, have a specific condition that matters more than fitness: Cape Kidnappers is genuinely tide-locked and can strand you if you misjudge the timing, and several regional-park tracks (Waitākere and Hunua Ranges especially) have kauri dieback closures on individual tracks that change from year to year: check the specific track status before you drive out, not just the park name.