Access to Lauer’s station welcomed

FEDERATED Mountain Clubs (FMC) president Peter Wilson says he plans to test the new agreement on access through Hunter Valley Station, beside Lake Hawea this summer.

Station owner American Matt Lauer, the Departments of Conservation and Land Information NZ, with advice from The Walking Access Commission, have reached an agreement allowing vehicles, cyclists, horse riders and walkers through the station, provided they abide by a list of terms and conditions.

The agreement comes at the end of a longrunning dispute over access, that has included criticism from FMC.

Mr Wilson said he was ‘‘very happy’’ with the agreement.

‘‘It’s a significant step forward for access and basically it means the public can now have some certainty that if they follow the rules they’ll get access through Hunter Valley Station to the Hawea Conservation Park beyond.’’

Mr Wilson said people had stopped trying to go through the station because access had been made difficult.

‘‘So we’ve got a whole new valley to explore this summer.’’

He did not expect there would be many walkers on the 45km track but predicted there would be plenty of mountain bikers.

Mr Wilson said it was the only Otago valley he had not been into ‘‘because of the access issues’’.

‘‘I’m going to ask for access this summer and see what happens.

‘‘We’ll just see if FMC presi dents who have campaigned for access to Hunter Valley are granted access when they ask.

‘‘I will obey all the rules of the agreement.’’

In a press release announcing the agreement yesterday, Doc Central Otago operations manager Mike Tubbs said the department welcomed the agreement ‘‘improving public access’’.

‘‘With this agreement the public now have a clear outline of the access to Hunter River Valley and Hawea Conservation Park.’’

On behalf of Mr Lauer’s Orange Lakes company, director and lawyer Graeme Todd said while ‘‘noone could point to any person having been unreasonably denied access over the farm track since Orange Lakes took over the Hunter Valley Station in 2017, we agreed it wouldn’t hurt for there to be more clarity . . .’’

The agreement points out the track has about 14 river crossings, 22 gates, no cellphone coverage, no toilets, many blind corners and requires four hours of driving.