This study looks at the summer time visitors to Tongariro National Park, at who they are, the characteristics and motivations they share, and the factors which may influence the level of their impact on the Park environment. The 10% of New Zealand set aside as park land contains this country's most spectacular landscapes and protects the remnants of its unique flora and fauna. Its very ruggedness and remoteness serve also to nurture areas of wilderness keenly sought by men and women, many of whom feel increasingly alienated from the nature which shaped them. Yet others achieve fulfilment by visiting parks in the company of their families or close friends. The unsophisticated life style, a heightened sense of egalitarianism and the abandonment of everyday roles, merge to produce primary group situations which contrast sharply with the urban life of most park users. Decisions to become park users appear from this study to be a product of the psychological and sociological processes which are part of an individuals 'personal community'. The depth, breadth, and quality of these experiences determine the nature of the users' subsequent activities. In turn, individual users influence others, thus stimulating further the present trends towards a 'backcountry boom' in New Zealand. Concern that the protective function of parks may be unduly compromised by the pressure of a user-public suggests a need for more and better information on the characteristics of Park users, and the nature of carrying capacity. The interrelatedness of these with the concepts of motivation and impact are the central features of this research.