Alternative route to get into Otaki Forks

It might be cheaper to build a road on the other side although that would include land purchase resource consents and environment court hearings so dont even expect a plan before the end of next year. If you go back to the early 80s the road was 4wd only from Roaring meg and I went in there once and just crossing that looked pretty hairy. I was in a Cortina so discretion won over valor. Its access to the Southern Crossing so there will be pressure to reopen but like most of the Tararuas the rock has been shaken to bits so it could end up like Manawatu Gorge. Greater Wellington might chip in for the costs. Also as its an important road for tourism the govt might help like they have to keep the road to Ngawi open.

council mentality has always to just been to keep throwing money at the existing road as if the problem will eventually go away. long term would be cheaper to build another road, but you have to get the council to think that far ahead and think long enough about the road, to the councillors its just a black hole for their roading budget in an area where traffic congestion is a massive problem and a large portion of the population are retirees who dont care about access to the tararuas they are more worried about the sea not washing their properties away and pushing the council to spend money on that issue... its mainly out of towners wanting access to the forks... council arent answerable to them... its not one of those places DOC or the council promotes a lot. recreationally its a major access point for the tararuas. probably doesnt register with the councillor just how many people go in there... camping and tramping not being televised sports events.... and this summer is going to be a biggie for NZers to visit their own back yard.... people are looking for places to go closer to home... tararuas arent well served for road end campsites as big as Otaki forks, the forks is an exception, a lot of regulars go there that will have to find somewhere else to go. and compete for spaces in other campgrounds. the road has remained open without issue for decades but erosion is catching up, juste having a quick cleanup isnt going to be enough in the future.

Difficult I know

Call me a cynic but when you break it down to an individual level local (and central) body governments really have little incentive to provide long term solutions to problems. Road is closed; road is cleaned up to make passable at as little cost as possible; people are happy road is working again; people are happy their rates down't change (much); councilor gets re-elected... Road is closed; new road needs to be built at great expense; presumably old road still needs to be cleaned up to be used in interim at more expense; lots of roadworks annoying/inconveniencing people either way; people are annoyed; lots of expenses so rates go up; people are annoyed; councilor is not re-elected... (Apply this sequence to any issue you want...)

not high on councils agenda to remediate a back road long term effectively... now if it had a regional cycleway running through it, that might be another story....

@geeves Just forget it there is no access going to happen on the over side of the river by vehicle or on foot . anyone thinking they can will face trespass . also the track down to the river is pedestrian access only

I said it was something for the council to consider. Thats why I said it is private over there. Council has all sorts of powers to acquire land for a road if it choses. We have no rights of access to private land and I was not advocating such action

OK. The irate landowner has got me interested enough to go digging with LINZ. As stated, the roads and major blocks of land on that side are private. So I went looking for a marginal strip that could be useful for a future track. There is a parcel there that looks like a marginal strip - constant ~50m wide parcel following the north bank of the Otaki river. However, it shows as a fee-simple parcel - not a legal road or conservation land as would be expected for a marginal strip. Looking at the ownership details is even more interesting: Fee Simple, 1/1, Situated in the Provincial District of Wellington being Blocks XIX, XX and XXI and parts of XVI, XVII and XVIII and shown on the plan of lands allocated to The Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company Limited under the Railways Construction and Land Act 1881, 125,913,890 m2 Owners: Her Majesty The Queen So the land that would normally be a marginal strip on the north bank of the Otaki is not privately held land, but a crown-held railway reserve! Now, I doubt that there is practical walking/bushbashing access along the 50m wide railway reserve, as things stand. But it would be the obvious route for any future track to start with. Source: LINZ Data Service: https://data.linz.govt.nz/layer/50805-nz-property-titles-including-owners/ To view you'll need to sign up to LDS, and then apply for access to landowner data to see this layer.

Look at the topo map. That 50 meters is not realistically traversable. Until the council sorts out a long term solution the current situation is that no access exists to Otaki Forks. The railway reserve would be a left over from logging days. I wonder if the records are correct especially as it says fee simple. Not a normal allocation for railway land.

By definition the info is correct. LINZ's property owner database _is_ the legal record (the 'definitive record') of land ownership in NZ. Not that it helps practical access if the route traverse bluffs and the like. The continued existence of unused railway reserves is is not unusual. The Otago Central Railway reserve from Cromwell to Hawea still exists in many places - even though it was never built. But that does follow a more practical, surveyed route - I do concede.