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Each year thousands of NZers and tourists explore our outdoors on bike. The average mountain bike tourist spends 3 or 4 days on their holiday. And many of them explore our plantation forests. I talked to independent economist Benje Patterson. Patterson has published a report showing that tourists who biked through New Zealand’s production forests in 2022 spent nearly $300 million on things like food, accommodation, and entertainment.
Benje Patterson's report: Economic impacts of mountain biking in production forests in New Zealand Music: Verão by Shane Ivers Photo of Craters Bike Park by Miles Holden
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Te Reo Irirangi o te Upoko i te Ika was at the launch of our new name Herenga ā Nuku Aotearoa on 28 July 2022. Their news story tells a little about what the new name means and why it is important for the Commission.
Te Reo Irirangi o te Upoko i te Ika kindly allowed us to reproduce and share this story. Ngā mihi nui ki a ratou.
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Ric Balfour from Landcare Trust and Felicity Brough from Walking Access Commission have formed a partnership where they work with farmers and catchment groups to help them develop public access routes when they are doing riparian planting. Felicity and Ric’s work is important because there is a strong link between good public access to land and healthy environmental outcomes.
For more information about riparian planting and public access visit the Landcare Trust and Walking Access Commission websites, especially:
The A,B,Cs of Riparian Corridor GMPs, Catchment Groups, Catchment Management, Public access to rivers lakes and the coast, and Maps of public access areas in NZ---
Music: Verão by Shane Ivers.
Photo by Ric Balfour
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Celia Wade-Brown is best known to many people as the former mayor of Wellington. But since that political adventure, she has become a different type of adventurer, first walking Te Araroa, then cycling then Tour Aotearoa and more recently kayaking around significant parts of the motu. She’s also a member of the Walking Access Commission Board and Te Araroa Trust Board, and she founded Living Streets Aotearoa and organises the Wairarapa Walking Festival.
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Music: Verão by Shane Ivers.
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Walking is not just a slow way of getting from A to Z. It is about experiencing all the other letters in between.
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Source of dawn chorus with blackbirds in the foreground: Department of Conservation
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Ric Cullinane, our Tumuaki/Chief Executive shares the story behind creating easements for some stunning tracks located in central Otago.
This 10 year long project spans back to the dawn of the commission. The story includes behind the scenes information on easements, international celebrities and what can only be described as eye-watering views.
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After four years at the Walking Access Commission Asher Wilson-Goldman is leaving us. He takes time out in his last week to talk about some of the changes to public access during his time as strategic communications and partnerships manager. And he talks about some of the challenges and issues for public access in the future.
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Professor Mick Abbott teaches landscape architecture and sustainable land use at Lincoln University. He has a passion for New Zealand's many special outdoor places. He is working on a project to develop a network of tracks and trails that will connect the people of Franklin-North Waikato to each other and to the awa. He talks to us about his view that landscapes can shape people rather than people shaping landscapes. You can see his Franklin-North Waikato report, including maps, on our website.
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The 38km Link Pathway Te Ara Tuhono between Picton and Havelock is nearly complete. After 15 years work on it, one of its instigators, Rick Edmonds, is looking forward to finishing.
Edmonds says the idea for the path came when locals noted there was nowhere people could go for walks and enjoy the Marlborough Sounds environment, other than on the edge of the road. -
Geoff Ricketts set up and now chairs the Ipipiri Nature Conservancy Trust, which this week bought Elliot Bay Farm in the Bay of Islands. You can see a map of the area on the Walking Access Commission website. The trust is going to preserve public access to the beach and also hopes to build a Great Walk standard multi-day walk on the bush-covered land.
Photo credit: Richard Craig Smart -
Nestled between Auckland and Hamilton, the towns of Pukekohe, Pokeno and Tuakau along the Waikato river are growing rapidly. Tens of thousands of people are moving in as farmland is subdivided into new suburbs. Our Connecting Franklin-North Waikato Project wants to makes sure, before the houses go in, that local people can get around by foot and by cycle within and between their towns. In this podcast Asher Wilson-Goldman tells us what the project is, how it came about and what it will mean for people in these fast-growing towns.
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Don Sinclair belongs to a group that is building a walkway to the Sir Truby King Bridge in Tahakopa. The Walking Access Commission recently granted $8,000 toward information panels on the new walkway that tell the history and stories of Sir Truby King.
Sinclair is an aficionado of local icon, Sir Truby King. So he and other locals are building a walkway as a memorial to the man.
Dr King the renowned doctor and founder of Plunket was a resident of the Catlins village of Tahakopa between 1893 and 1929. During that time, the railway came to the Tahakopa district and King was instrumental in helping that happen. -
John Forbes has been with the Walking Access Commission since before its inception. Last week we marked his retirement and celebrated his contribution to outdoor public access in New Zealand. Many of the speakers, including John, took the opportunity to talk about the history (and the future) of the Commission and of public access.
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Sarah Cruickshank is the Walking Access Commission's GIS and IT Manager. GIS (Geographical Information System) enables our Access Maps to display all the information that people use when looking for tracks of public access. Sarah tells us how and why the Commission is updating its GIS, what it will mean for people using our maps and when you can look forward to the new system.
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WorkSafe has recently confirmed that people carrying out outdoor recreation are responsible for their own risk rather than landowners or businesses. This matches the advice the Walking Access Commission has given since the Health and Safety at Work law came into effect. In this podcast Sam Newton describes the work that Recreation Aotearoa and John Palmer of the NZ Alpine Club did to get that change. And we talk about why it is good news for land owners who let people onto their land.
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Sam Newton, Advocacy Manager for Recreation Aotearoa, talks about the government's new Wellbeing Budget. Traditional budgets focus on money and growing the economy. But the new Wellbeing Budget also focuses on people, the environment and our natural resources. It creates some exciting opportunities for outdoor recreation enthusiasts because it gives us a new powerful way to describe why the outdoors and recreation are both important.
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The Ministry for Primary Industries is reviewing the Walking Access Act 2008. Asher Wilson-Goldman, the Walking Access Commission's Strategic Communications and Partnerships Manager talks about what the Act is, how it promotes public access to the outdoors and what people might want from it in the future.
MPI wants to hear from people interested in access to the outdoors, so it can get the best possible results from the review. The Act is about increasing free access to tracks, trails and other areas for all sorts of recreation associated with walking - biking, horse riding, four wheel driving, access by Māori to sites of significance, surfing, hunting and fishing.
To find out more or give your feedback:
•MPI Walking Access Act Review page
•Public feedback paper
•Summary of public feedback paper
•Online feedback form -
Julian Hitchman is one of the Walking Access Commission's Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) Analysts. He talks about how the Commission uses geospatial data to create the maps we use. These maps show tracks, trails and other public access to land. Crucially, they help us negotiate and develop new public tracks and trails. You can view the Walking Access Mapping System (WAMS) at www.wams.org.nz and Find My Adventure at www.walkingaccess.govt.nz
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