ROAD CLOSED – In January 2009, the Auckland Regional Council released documentation on off road vehicle recreation, in an effort to restrict the availability of recreational areas for the sport, sparking up a heated conflict between four wheel driving enthusiasts and community groups.
It was a blistering hot day and the air was thick with dust and the sweet scent of surrounding native forest. I stood staring down the rugged track, peering past several inauspicious signs – “Maori Land! No Trespassing”, “Trespassers will be shot!” in thick red paint – wondering if we should still go down it. A friend of ours had said that the signs were only deterrents (I hadn’t expected them to be so brash) and that we should just leave a donation and head down the track. So after much deliberation we dropped some money in the donations box, in a ramshackle shed near the entrance, and headed down the track. Pete and Sarah headed down first, in their giant-sized Land Cruiser, while Alistair and I bumped along behind in his seemingly miniature pop-top Suzuki. Although we’d been informed of the ‘rules’ with this track, something I have learnt with the four wheel driving community is that you need to be ‘in the know’ because similar ‘no trespassing’ or ‘road closed’ signs are becoming more common at four wheel drive track entrances, especially in the Auckland Region.
It had taken us a generous portion of the previous day to travel the 300kms from Auckland up to Ahipara, just out of Kaitaia. Alistair and I were meeting another young couple from Hamilton, Pete and Sarah, up there who had already spent a few days checking out Ninety Mile Beach and the Cape. The plan was to spend the weekend up north camping, chilling out and getting as much four wheel driving in as possible. It was a long way to go, but travelling long distances for a four wheel drive trip isn’t uncommon. There aren’t many four wheel drive tracks in the Auckland region that are open access, so four wheel drivers generally have to travel out of Auckland, or illegally use land like a select few choose to. With an estimated 8,500 recreational four wheel drivers in the region, hitting up around 250,000 trips in total each year, it is no wonder there are frustrated four wheel drivers out there. Aucklander Alistair Bain is one of them, travelling up to 330km to go four wheel driving, saying “there are four wheel drive tracks anywhere in New Zealand, except Auckland”.
The Auckland Regional Council (ARC) has claimed, in its impacts report on Off Road Motorised Recreation in the Auckland Region, that several groups, including environmental groups and other users of public land, have become increasingly concerned with the off road use of four wheel drives as a recreation.
So what’s everyone kicking up such a fuss about?
The impacts report, produced by Visitors Solutions for the ARC in January 2009, claimed that environmental issues with off road vehicular use included the impacts on wildlife, vegetation, riparian areas, and costal areas. The relevance of this impacts report may not be completely sound though, as most of it seems concerned with the effects of off road vehicles on American ecosystems, such as the effect of noise pollution on the spade foot toad.
Although there are some parallels to be drawn, the relevance is questionable and it might have made more sense to base the study on New Zealand specific ecosystems. Even when it does reference New Zealand specific studies, its information seems flawed. In referencing the Ministry of Fisheries’ study on the “distribution and abundance of toheroa” on Ninety Mile Beach, the impacts reports claimed that the use of vehicles on beaches “is considered to be a significant mortality agent for small toheroa”, however the actual study only speculates this as a cause for small toheroa mortalities.
Another cause for conflict is the social impact of off road vehicular use, the impacts report claimed. With the increasing urban sprawl of Auckland, spaces for outdoor activities are steadily decreasing. This means that the long list of outdoor recreations stated in Sport & Recreation New Zealand’s Outdoor Recreation Review (2008) – including motorised recreation, fishing, walking, and horse riding – will either learn to share better with one another or have greater restrictions imposed on them. The impacts report claimed that off road motorised recreation had been noted to cause aesthetic and noise impacts and “have the potential to interfere with or restrict other individuals’ activities”. Does this not work in both directions though? Off road vehicle use has already been restricted on Muriwai beach, with road conditions being imposed and a maximum speed limit of 60km/h north of the Coast Road beach access point.
Before releasing the impacts report, the ARC released the Issues and potential responses paper. At the end of this paper the ARC claimed a variety of organisations had been contacted for consultation regarding the investigation into off road motorised recreation, including the New Zealand Four Wheel Driving Association (NZFWDA). However, in a statement released on the NZFWDA’s website “the NZFWDA was referenced when no discussion had taken place over 'impacts' or that there was even to be such a document”. The NZFWDA contacted Visitors Solutions, which replied with a long email that included this statement: “While some of the information regarding the demand for off road recreation is based on our initial discussions, demand survey and discussions with other off road users, the document is not intended to represent the views of, or be endorsed by the off road sector, NZFWDA or any of the clubs”. Visitors Solutions also said that it had received “comments regarding the biased nature of the paper from environmental groups”.
Despite the ARC’s attempts, so far, to restrict off road access for four wheel drives there are still several places that cater for this recreation within the Auckland region. The Jeep Woodhill 4WD Adventure Park, private farms, the Extreme 4WD Adventure Park provide for the majority of off road access in the Auckland region, catering for both the competition and social four wheel drivers. Then there are beaches and paper roads that provide almost solely for social four wheel drivers.
Is four wheel driving really worth the fight?
“It’s fun. It’s about the challenge of driving and getting to places some people go their whole lives without ever seeing,” says Alistair Bain, a laid back friendly kind of guy who’s been into four-wheel driving for the past 4 years. Social four wheel drivers, like Alistair, seem to prefer travelling further away for their off road experiences. As a member of Off Road Express (ORE), an internet based club, Alistair frequently travels long distances to go four wheel driving: “I like to have something to look at. A lake, or a waterfall, or a nice camp ground”.
Just wanting to get out there and enjoy nature has taken Alistair all over the North Island – the Coromandel, Taupo, Rotorua, Muriwai, Ninety Mile Beach. I’d spent half of a simmering afternoon driving through the southern hills of Ninety Mile Beach with Alistair, Pete, and Sarah. I was filled with the adrenaline rush of the steep slopes of the track, and amazed at the variation in terrain. There were the rocks that had to slowly be hobbled over, the smooth sand that dipped into the occasional puddle of water, the compacted and eroded clay that needed technical skill and guidance to drive through. The track was obviously well used by the locals. We were passed several times by people on quads loaded with chilli-bins and even one towing a fairly large trailer.
There was a slow pace to the whole adventure, a relaxed and enjoyable pace. At one stage we reached a fork in the road, veering to the right led up to a small look out. Finally I understood what Alistair meant about getting to places that some people go their entire lives without seeing. The blistering sun was beating down on us, barely a cloud in the sky, with dust collecting on my sweaty forehead. I stood in the middle of nowhere, looking at the view of a seemingly endless horizon of trees, ocean, and sand dunes. It’s those moments that should be experienced by everyone.
