Oturehua Region Central Otago South Island New Zealand
Photo by AnnWoolliams, CC BY-SA 4.0

Access to legal roads

Everyone has the right to travel unimpeded on public roads, except where there are legal restrictions, such as those prohibiting pedestrians from motorways.

In terms of access, we talk about two types of legal road:

  • Formed legal road
  • Unformed legal road

Both types have the same basic access rights, but unformed legal roads are harder to find and sometimes difficult to access.

Learn about access to unformed legal roads

There are two roads in the image above. The formed legal road is obvious. You will need our maps to identify the unformed legal road.

How to find unformed legal roads