Teamwork sees Te Araroa walkers avoid risky road in Northland

Concerns about walkers’ safety have led to New Zealand's longest trail, Te Araroa, being rerouted down an unformed legal road through “amazing” Northland bush.

Residents of Whananaki, north of Whangārei, were becoming alarmed at encountering Te Araroa walkers on the narrow, winding, hilly Whananaki North Road, which links off-road sections of the trail.

Beef farmer and keen cyclist Greta Harman was one of the residents.

“I love having us on that length-of-New-Zealand trail. It’s good for the businesses in Whananaki,” Greta says.

“We just wanted to help walkers stay safe, by getting them off that road.”

She knew of an unformed legal road (often called a “paper road”) that could create a off-road shortcut – saving about 10km of formed road walking.

“I went in there with my son, who found the unformed legal road on an app on his phone. We stayed right on it the whole time and followed it into the most amazing bush. It’s super-quiet, we were like, ‘oh my God, this is so cool.’”

Some of the road has been formed at some stage, even bulldozed in places, and then abandoned, Greta says. Some appears to be untouched bush.

“It’s a beautiful walk.”

A view of the unformed legal road or "paper road" in Northland, which has reduced the length of a formed road section of Te Araroa.

Greta took her concerns, and her proposal, to the Outdoor Access Commission, Herenga ā Nuku Aotearoa, via its Northland regional field advisor, Shaughan Anderson.

Shaughan says the community’s concerns were exacerbated after a cyclist died in an accident on the road about a year ago.

“It’s a narrow road, and drivers do it at speed. There’s not much margin for error.”

Shaughan walked the unformed legal road too, noted its GPS coordinates and sent them to the Outdoor Access Commission’s geographic information systems team.

The new Kaiikanui Track, in blue on this Outdoor Access Commission public areas map, avoids a long road-walk for Te Araroa walkers (west along Kaiikanui Road, then back east along Whananaki North Road – in yellow on this map).

The next step was for Te Araroa Northland Trust chair Scott Anderson to speak to landowners whose properties are bisected by, or adjacent to, the unformed legal road.

There was some resistance, but it lessened once Scott had listened to their concerns, discussed ways to mitigate them, and explained the legal reality (the public has the same rights of way on an unformed legal road as on any other legal road).

“We continued to seek their input, and although things were tense at times, we remained engaged and considered their requests.”

The new, 3.5km route has now been cleared, marked, signposted, officially named the Kaiikanui Track and added to Te Araroa. Stiles have been built at each end.

Shaughan Anderson says the project would not have happened without Greta’s initiative and persistence.

“Some people are complainers, some are doers. Greta is the latter, and she always comes with solutions.”

The new section has been open for three months, and the Trust has had no negative feedback.

Mutual benefit

The Trust and one landowner worked out an agreement that the new track would deviate at one point from the unformed legal road’s surveyed route, to avoid passing close to a dwelling, Scott says.

This turned out to be mutually beneficial: rather than crossing paddocks, the trail’s scenic value has been increased by following a bush-lined stream, fenced off as part of a Northland Regional Council initiative to mitigate run-off from grassland farming.

And in any case, the legal road’s route would have been costly to follow at that point, Scott says.

One of the outstanding aspects of the entire process had been its collaborative nature, he says.

“I acknowledge Shaughan, who brought the unformed legal road to the Trust’s attention, then stepped back at the appropriate time, remaining available to offer advice. With the resistance we encountered early in the process, it was critical to have the knowledge that Herenga ā Nuku provided.”

Outdoor Access Commission chief executive Dan Wildy visits the north end of Te Araroa's new Kaiikanui Track.

Support from Te Araroa Trust had also been important, Scott says. It helped with the design process and financially but left the local trust to manage community relationships.

The result is an excellent new walk, he says.

“We are currently reviewing other unformed legal roads that could remove road walking sections from Te Araroa in Northland.”

Shaughan Anderson said his main takeaway from the experience was that the key to achieving good public access outcomes is a collaborative and considerate approach that balances landowners’ concerns such as privacy, security, and safety, with the need for people to access the outdoors and get places.

It also underlined the value of the country’s 55,000km network of unformed legal roads.

“They can provide workable, legal solutions for public outdoor access, which can be opened up relatively cheaply and easily.”

More information:
On finding and following public access via our app, Pocket Maps
On unformed legal roads
On Te Araroa
On the Outdoor Access Commission’s regional field advisors