Trust to close roads to access Kaimanawa estate
A trust that administers private land blocks between the Desert Rd and Kaimanawa Forest Park has erected gates across two roads used for decades by the public to access the park. Tony Wall investigates.
It’s just above freezing on an August morning and rain clouds have descended over Te Onetapu, the Rangipo Desert, giving the landscape a gloomy feel.
To the west, the mountain legends of Ma¯ ori myth – Ruapehu, Tongariro and Nga¯ uruhoe – occasionally reveal themselves through the cloud.
Running east from the Desert Rd, two paved but potholed roads cross the tussock-clad plains heading towards the green hills of the Kaimanawa Forest Park.
They are known as Waipakihi Rd and Rangipo Intake Rd and for generations they have been used by trampers, hunters, anglers and four-wheel-drivers to access the Waipakihi River Valley area of the forest park, a conservation estate.
But recently, workers have begun erecting gates near the start of the roads, alarming regular park users, who fear their access is about to be severely curtailed.
What’s going on?
The land blocks on either side of the roads – known as Rangipo North 6C and Rangipo North 7C – are two of 85 blocks in the central North Island administered by the Lake Rotoaira Forest Trust (LRFT) on behalf of more than 12,000 Ma¯ ori owners.
The trust has erected the gates, but is not saying why, or when they will be closed. Privately, trustees have told stakeholders that they are concerned about the way visitors are treating the area, taking four-wheel-drive vehicles up the Waipakihi Riverbed and dumping rubbish.
They’ve also said they want to protect assets for a new commercial venture with Taupo¯ firm Helisika, which will involve flying people to a specially-built landing pad off Waipakihi Rd for mountain biking.
(The venture received $596,800 of Government money through the Provincial Growth Fund.)
‘It’s a small few ruining it for the majority – rubbish dumping, people driving up the riverbed in their four wheel drives, which is incredibly disrespectful and obviously not good for the environment.’ MEGAN DIMOZANTOS Executive member of Federated Mountain Clubs
LRFT declined to answer Sunday News’ questions about why the gates had been erected and when they would be closed. Chair Frankie Taituma instead issued a ‘‘statement of position’’ acknowledging ‘‘public interest regarding the long-standing historical privilege of unrestricted public access through these private lands’’.
She says the trust is consulting with beneficial owners and stakeholders regarding ‘‘future effective management of such access’’ and until that is completed, protocols for ongoing use of the roads will not be finalised.
The Department of Conservation provided a little more information, its Central Plateau District manager Dave Lumley says in a statement that use of the ‘‘soon to be closed access points’’ was always at the goodwill of the owners, ‘‘with an expectation that people would [show] ... respect for the land and the privilege of crossing it’’.
However, DOC understood there had been ‘‘multiple causes of annoyance and frustration’’ for the landowners arising from a ‘‘general disregard’’ for the land.
‘‘One example of concern for the owners and DOC is 4WD activity within the Waipakihi River Valley.’’
Lumley says DOC has been contacted by frustrated members of the public asking for the department to intervene.
But while DOC has a duty to facilitate public recreation on conservation land, ‘‘the department is not obliged to seek access across private property.
‘‘In this case, the landowners have indicated that they intend to remove the privilege to cross their property and the general public must now use a less familiar, and potentially less convenient, but legally-secure access point.’’
Lumley says there will still be access to the southern part of the forest park along the southern severance access way adjacent to the NZ Army boundary, as well as Tree Trunk Gorge and
Kaimanawa Rds to the north.
The situation has echoes of the closure of Lake Waikaremoana and its Great
Walk by the Tu¯ hoe iwi authority, reported by Sunday News last year.
Ross Nolan, an engineer from Taupo¯ who has been visiting Kaimanawa Forest Park since he has a child, says the road closures will severely impact access to the Waipakahi River valley area. It takes about two days to walk in from the south, and about 14 hours from the north, over the Urchin track, he says.
‘‘It’s now going to take you two days of walking to get to somewhere where you can currently drive on a road, get out and access immediately.’’
Nolan says he sympathises with the owners around the rubbish-dumping issue, but believes their main aim in gating the roads is to provide exclusivity for the helicopter venture.
Nolan and others on hunting and shooting forums have questioned the trust’s right to close the roads, given they were taken by the Crown in 1968 under the Public Works Act for the Tongariro power scheme.
DOC and Land Information NZ were unable to determine who owned the roads now, referring Sunday News to Treasury, which said ownership was transferred to LRFT in 1990.
Herenga a¯ Nuku Aotearoa/The Outdoor Access Commission confirmed the roads originated from the creation of the power scheme and were held as
Crown land.
They were never dedicated as legal roads, although the Crown allowed public access over them.
The commission said it had received a number of enquiries about the entitlement for public access to the Kaimanawa State Forest Park using Waipakihi and Rangipo Intake Rds and it would now begin assessing other options for public access.
Megan Dimozantos, an executive member of Federated Mountain Clubs, says the organisation is in talks with the trust about access.
‘‘We have a good relationship and it’s our preference to work alongside them for a solution,’’ she says.
‘‘People are disappointed to see it’s closing, but they understand the reasons behind it and I think everyone’s pretty hopeful that we should be able to find an amicable solution.
‘‘It’s a small few ruining it for the majority – rubbish dumping, people driving up the riverbed in their four wheel drives, which is incredibly disrespectful and obviously not good for the environment.’’
Dimozantos says she has been disappointed by some ‘‘racist’’ commentary online. There are worse problems elsewhere around the country, she says.
‘‘I do wonder why I’m getting [asked] about someone saying ‘no, we don’t want
you to come across our private land any more’, which they’re actually entitled to do, when there’s other places where we’ve got people who are actually blocking legal access, and no-one’s asking questions about that.’’
Jules Lee, a Youtuber and member of the Four Wheel Drive Association, agrees it’s a private property rights issue and not a case of iwi trying to exclude non-Ma¯ ori. But he says there has been a lack of communication from the trust.
‘‘It is alarming. I’m planning to go there within the next two weeks and camp in the snow and film it for my Youtube channel. But if we can’t get in, it’s like ‘where do we go now?’’’
Lee says there is unfortunately a ‘‘boy racer’’ or ‘‘hoon’’ culture within the fourwheel-drive community who are ‘‘heading to places like Muriwai beach, ripping up the dunes, things like that’’ who won’t respect the road closures.
‘‘There’s guys who’ve got this mentality of ‘oh we’ll just cut the lock, we’ll pull the gate off’, that sort of thing. There’s a lot of tracks off the side of the road through iwi land and DOC land and people are going to start accessing them instead and illegally going in. Unless they gate every single track ... they’re going to cause other issues.’’
Lee says he’s trying to educate people through his Youtube channel about respecting the environment. Most fourwheel-drivers these days call it ‘‘overlanding’’, he says, taking a rooftop tent and fishing and camping.
‘‘It’s not going there to do hard-out wheel spinning and silly driving.’’
He says if the roads were to be closed over winter only, that would be acceptable.
‘‘That sort of thing is fine, if we know about it or we can access a key ...for planned, registered trips.
‘‘I wouldn’t mind paying a fee if we had to.’’