A controversial high country station is at the centre of a stoush over access to a national park. David Williams reports.
It was hailed as a first.
After a three-year trial, a track to a national park was finally able to be used by mountain bikers, according to a 2009 story in Christchurch’s The Press newspaper.
The 27km-long track in question ran through the Poulter River Valley to Arthur’s Pass National Park, with two-wheeled privileges enshrined in the park’s management plan.
A Department of Conservation sign could be found at the car park.
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What the story didn’t tell you is, to get to the valley, bikers cross Mt White Station, a sprawling Crown pastoral lease adjoining the park now owned by Czech businessman Lukas Travnicek, who was then a New Zealand resident.
At the time of Travnicek’s purchase, in 2018, assurances were made by Land Information New Zealand (Linz), the Crown’s land manager, “current public access to Mt White Station will continue unchanged”.
Right now, the gate is unlocked.
Last year, however, Mt White denied access to the Poulter during lambing and calving season. The farm station now offers mountain bike rides to fee-paying visitors on 60km of “private backcountry farm roads”.
(Mt White Station’s owner, Southern Ranges Ltd, is also locked in a legal battle with the Crown over the status of reserve land, known as Riversdale Flats, set aside in 1901 for national park purposes.)
The Poulter track allows access to the eastern part of the national park. There isn’t an alternative public route for mountain bikers. Trampers are forced to use longer, more difficult routes over the Binser and Casey Saddles.
Agencies are negotiating access to the Poulter later this year. Mt White says the situation is “yet to be determined”.
Herenga ā Nuku Aotearoa, the Outdoor Access Commission, has a “clear expectation” the public should be given access.
Jan Finlayson, past-president of Federated Mountain Clubs, says: “It’s vital that public confidence and access to the valley is restored.”
Issues with access to the Poulter came to public attention a year ago.
Guy Blundell, a director of Southern Ranges, says Mt White consulted DoC and Linz, as well as Fish & Game, before it blocked access to the valley between September and December. Such bans are common for farm businesses “where there is no legal right of access”, he says via email.
“Mis-mothering of lambs and calves occurs when there is intervention from people walking and biking through the livestock at this time. Any loss of young lambs and calves over this period has an economic cost to the business and provides us with animal welfare concerns.
“It is a farm track in a dilapidated state,” Blundell says of the Poulter track, which is “suitable for walking, horses, mountain bikes and motor bikes – not four-wheel drive vehicles”.
DoC confirms it has had five enquiries or complaints about the lack of access; the Outdoor Access Commission three.
An experienced angler’s complaint, seen by Newsroom, called it a “draconian shutdown”.
“Clearly, the intent of the legal road, though, is to allow access along the valley.” – Ric Cullinane
Finlayson, who is Federated Mountain Clubs’ Crown pastoral land convenor, wrote to Land Information Minister Damien O’Connor in October last year about the “misalignment” of a legal road up the Poulter valley.
Minister O’Connor’s response, sent in December, said anyone wanting to cross a pastoral lease must seek permission from the leaseholder as they have exclusive possession and exercise lease rights over it.
Linz advised Mt White had built their own “diverted” sections of track, off the legal path and onto leased land, due to flooding, “to ensure that they have continued farm management access to livestock”. People need permission to access areas deviating from the legal road, O’Connor said.
Chris Stewart, a former DoC staffer who now chairs the Waimakariri Environment and Recreation Trust, laments legal access hasn’t been established. “There was an assumption, I suppose, that there’d always be mountain bike access up that track.”
Outdoor Access Commission chief executive Ric Cullinane has a different view. He says legal access is enduring, despite the misalignment. “Clearly, the intent of the legal road, though, is to allow access along the valley. We are advocating for that access right.”
(Under changes made last year to the Crown Pastoral Land Act, the Commissioner of Crown Lands – a statutory manager who reports directly to the minister – must support the Outdoor Access Commission’s public access goals, “as far as practicable”.)
A bone of contention is the public money spent upgrading and maintaining the Poulter Valley track.
Stewart, the former DoC staffer, says the track was opened by the Forest Service and maintained by its successor, DoC.
However, Blundell, of Mt White, says, in the wake of a meeting with DoC in November: “To our knowledge and to DoC’s knowledge, no public funds have gone into the Poulter track”.
Awkwardly, that’s not what DoC says.
Leeann Ellis, the department’s North Canterbury operations manager, says it hasn’t done a thorough check but the cost to taxpayers for work on the track over the years would total thousands, or possibly tens of thousands, of dollars.
“Most recently, we spent about $1600 on minor flood repairs in December 2021 to maintain light vehicle access for staff carrying out biodiversity work in the Poulter Valley.”
Hope for year-round agreement
Ellis says there’s no legal easement up the valley and access is, therefore, at the leaseholder’s discretion. The department met with Mt White late last month.
“We are hopeful an arrangement can be reached which will allow for year-round access for recreational users,” she says.
Newsroom approached Linz on Friday of last week, and received comment a week later.
Head of Crown Property Sonya Wikitera says in an emailed statement that leaseholders have the right to exclusive occupation and quiet enjoyment, allowing them discretion to grant or withold access over leased land and improvements, including vehicle and walking tracks.
“Public access to the unformed legal road (sometimes called a paper road) is under the juristriction of the Selwyn District Council.”
People wanting access could apply for an easement or engage directly with the leaseholder. “We understand that Selwyn District Council and Outdoors Access Commission Herenga ā Nuku Aotearoa are working together to resolve the situation,” Wikitera says.
Stewart, of the Waimakariri Environment and Recreation Trust, says: “How has this happened when public money [has been spent and] there’s been public access for some time?”
The trust would like year-round public walking and mountain bike access to be cemented.
“We don’t believe that it should be closed during that lambing period.
“The walking access is on the riverbank, basically – so, we don't believe, no real disturbance by mountain bikes and walking to stock.”
Mt White’s Blundell mentions an existing problem with motorbikes using the valley.
As for what will happen during the upcoming lambing and calving season? “It is yet to be determined at this point.”
The Outdoor Access Commission’s Cullinane says the issue is complex, and it’s not known when it will be resolved. “We have a clear expectation that the public should be able to access the valley.”
Meanwhile, Finlayson, of FMC, worries the outcome of the High Court battle over Riversdale Flats might affect the Poulter.
“Given the lessee’s access-blocking approach even when alternative lambing country is available, it is reasonable to assume such restriction may continue if the alternative [at Riversdale Flats] is permanently ruled out with the coming court decision. It is also possible the lessee will extend Poulter access obstruction beyond the lambing period.”
* This story has been updated with comment from Linz.
