VAHRYOUS THOUGHTS
It was inevitable it seems, that with the arrival of the Kauri dieback disease, along with evidence indicating that it is spread in water and soils, that four-wheeling would also be a victim. While no identified infected areas can be attributed to 4WD recreation, in line with a general policy to keep people away from Kauri and associated risks of transferring the disease, public lands with Kauri have been largely closed to access. That of course meant the closure of the 4x4 area at Maratoto in the southern end of the Coromandel Ranges. An area that’s been designated for vehicle recreation since the early 1970’s when the NZ Forest Service managed the land. It is interesting that despite the high traffic use over all those years, there has not yet been confirmation of Kauri die back in the Maratoto Valley. It has been detected to the north at Tairua. At its July meeting, the NZFWDA northern zone agreed to support the closure, despite the significant investments in time and money made over the years to maintain the track and even the planting of over 700 Kauri along the fringes of the track! The third largest Kauri on the Coromandel is also in the Maratoto Valley; ‘ Te Hue’ with a girth of 11.2 metres. There is faint hope that the Department of Conservation ( DoC) will acknowledge the recognition by the 4WD community of the need to close those Kauri areas and may encourage DoC to identify some alternative area without Kauri for motorised recreation use. There is evidence already of increased vehicle incursions into isolated tracks on the Coromandel by people wanting to ‘ test’ their toys. Perhaps it is time for DoC to stand up and suggest that NZ Defence give up the South Kaipara Bombing Range and return management to DoC, while allowing recreational use of that area? After all, if the Air Force are to move their surveillance aircraft to the south of the North Island because it’s too risky to arm them at Whenuapai Air Base with housing nearby, have no fighter aircraft and only base a few helicopters in Auckland, the concept of a ‘bombing range’ close to Auckland seems more bureaucratic than logical. Maybe the concept of ‘ touring’ or ‘overlanding’ as some advocates prefer to call it, will become even more popular and encouraged by other NZ4WD contributors including Richard Soult with his interesting journeys and website information source. The touring concept is something that I’ve spent years trying to impress upon agencies like DoC, where four wheelers actually enjoy getting to ‘ destinations’ and are willing to accept that the route may be a bit challenging... pretty much a description of any sporting activity! Backroads, dirt roads, gravel riverbeds, unformed legal roads; they are all offering opportunities for exploring by vehicle. Maybe with the exception of unformed legal roads, they almost inevitably have a destination, or at least had a reason for existence and that’s an excuse to investigate. You do need to do some homework to ensure that public access exists where you’d like to go and if it doesn’t, then permission must be sought from the manager of the land that you wish to traverse. In the news during July have been items about efforts by local iwi at Ahipara to erect fencing to restrict vehicle access to the sand dunes, now that those lands have been transferred under Treaty settlement. Their reported comments seemed to imply that they are not averse to granting some access, but do want to control who are going where on those dunes. Gates have gone up on entry points to private land along SH 25a on the Coromandel in an area that’s long been popular for vehicle use, albeit without permission! The land managers there are working on a plan that may allow some 4WD club access once work is done to improve water and silt management and overall sustainability. Vehicle access pressures are increasing everywhere and public lands, such as those managed by DoC, are at risk of being numbers limited, just as they’ve already had to do on their ‘Great Walks’. At least on some vehicle routes on DoC managed lands there is help from our community with the ongoing maintenance. I’m yet to hear of Great Walks users going back in their own time to help maintain the facilities. Oh that’s right, they are paying big fees to enjoy those walks so that someone else can do the work. Yes, that is an option for us too, but four-wheelers so far have not seemed inclined to take that route. Maybe in a few more years when fuel costs even more, the battery range of your EV is still a challenge of its own and land access is tighter; the idea of paying a high price for ‘overlanding’ access might become the norm. In the meantime, we do have some wonderful options to see the country and just need to ensure that we don’t do anything silly that might jeopardise relationships with those great landowners and managers who do allow us to enjoy the privilege of seeing those special places and destinations accessible only by driving on private land.