After growing in each of the last few years the numbers using Whanganui National Park took a small nosedive last season - and bad weather is the likely cause.
There was a rainy spring and two tropical cyclones during the usual holiday season, as well as cooler temperatures.
"Because of the weather we had significant cancellations of bookings," recreation and historic ranger Dave Westcott said.
The number of bed nights in the park between October 1 and April 30 dropped from 20,417 in 2015-16 to 18,298 last summer.
The number of people paddling the river on the Whanganui Journey is counted in a different way. They dropped from 8996 to 8502.
For both the drop wasn't consistent all the way through the summer months. For October and January numbers were higher than last year. For all the other months they were lower.
By contrast, the visitors counted at the Bridge to Nowhere in the Mangapurua Valley remained fairly constant, with 10,531 counted in 2015-16 and 10,597 counted in the last season.
Conservation Department staff will use the winter months to prepare park facilities for the next season.
In one possible innovation, they are investigating using a barge to move people and objects around on the Whanganui River as it flows through the park. At the moment most of those operations are done by helicopter and jetboat, senior partnerships ranger Jasmine Hessell said.