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Access
- Unformed Legal Roads
- Types of legal public access
- Overseas Investment Act
- Walking on Crown-owned land
- Cyclists and mountain bikers
- Walkways
- Resolving disputes over access
- The Country and Outdoor Recreation Calendar
- Crossing private land
- Can a landholder stop me using an unformed legal road?
- Forms of legal access across private land
- Dogs
- Motor vehicle on walking tracks
- Types of walkways
- Bikes, dogs and horses on walkways
- Greenways, property developers and the use of incentives
- What a wellbeing framework means for access to the outdoors
- Landholders can refuse the right to walk over land
- Downloadable GPX files make accessing hidden spots easier
- Shared pathways
- Forestry
- Landlocked land
- Responsible behaviour
- Health and safety
- Māori land
- Funding and awards
- Rivers, lakes and coast
- Education
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Contact an advisor to investigate or negotiate public outdoor access.
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Walking on Crown-owned land
Conservation land administered by the Department of Conservation (DOC) is usually open to walking access, but some exceptions exist. For example, where an area is managed to preserve the indigenous plants and animals in it or for scientific and other similar purposes. Other forms of access to conservation land may be restricted. DOC conservancy and area offices provide advice on specific instances. Hunting on Crown land requires a permit from DOC.
Crown land not administered by DOC may be open to public access at the discretion of the Crown. Access is often allowed by implied permission, but this depends on land use and other statutory restrictions. For example, Ministry of Defence and Department of Corrections land have special provisions, and public access is strictly restricted for obvious reasons.
Land subject to Crown pastoral lease (a large amount of the South Island high country) is in the exclusive possession of the leaseholders. It is essentially the same as private land from an access perspective. Traditionally the owners or lessees of large rural holdings with recreational value have permitted public recreational access across their land.
Page last updated: Jul 27, 2022, 10:03 AM