Beekeeper blocked from farm access

A beekeeper-farming operation is claiming sabotage after its neighbour blocked access to its isolated rural property.

Gerald Pearce and Philippa Williams asked the High Court to intervene, however, their bid to have the private track to their farm reopened has been denied.

Instead, they must use a helicopter to extract honey from their hives and tend to their 85 cows and 40 sheep.

Pearce and Williams are the trustees of the Totaranui Trust, which owns a property off Makakaho Rd in the Waitotara Valley, in rural country north-west of Whanganui.

The farm shares a northern boundary with Roger Pearce’s property, owned by Makakaho Land Company. He is also a farmer and beekeeper.

A court judgment, released by Justice Jan-marie Doogue, doesn’t disclose the relationship between the two parties.

For 100 years, access to the Totaranui property had been over the Makakaho property, and Gerald Pearce sought an interim injunction to enable access over his neighbour’s land to tend to Totaranui’s stock and beehives.

Roger Pearce opposed the order, but made some concessions as to limited access that could be granted under certain terms.

These included a book for signing in and out. The access had never been legally formalised and Gerald Pearce’s entitlement to use it was revoked when his neighbour entered the ma¯nuka industry shortly after 2016.

Roger Pearce began to place more beehives on the Makakaho property, and more on the boundaries of Totaranui and other neighbouring properties.

This led to proceedings being filed against him in February.

In December, Gerald Pearce obtained an injunction to prevent his neighbour from placing more hives on its farm, other than one hive per hectare of ma¯nuka resource available.

From 2004 to 2018, Gerald Pearce maintained the track so heavy vehicles could get to his cattle yards on Totaranui. Several smaller trucks also used it during the honey season.

Gerald Pearce said his neighbour had always reassured him the right-of-way issue would be resolved and it was never a problem until the last two ma¯nuka honey seasons.

Access was denied on December 26, 2017, when Roger Pearce sent a letter banning subcontractor, Settlers Honey, from using the track to place hives.

That ma¯nuka season was not good. Production was low and Gerald Pearce wrote to his neighbour telling him that if he had to pay for helicopters to remove and replace the hives he would lose money.

He asked for permission for Settlers Honey to be able to transport the hives out through the track. The dispute between the two escalated from there.

Roger Pearce stated his main issues included people using the track unannounced and without his permission.

He closed off access to outsiders and proposed a ‘‘sign in, sign out’’ system to record people’s movements.

He wanted to limit the use of the track only to people staying in a hut on Totaranui, who would have to pay $200.

He has padlocked the gate and refused access to Gerald Pearce, his subcontractors and his guests.

Gerald Pearce told the court not allowing access was ‘‘sabotage’’.

In declining Gerald Pearce’s interim junction, the judge said the matter should have been dealt with before the start of the honey season.

‘‘I note the applicants have had plenty of opportunity to establish their legal rights and have not done so.

‘‘The dispute has been ongoing for at least two years,’’ she said.

‘‘I also note the applicants have an alternative method of accessing the Totaranui property by helicopter to tend to their stock and to their hives.’’