Offroad-Express

i was talking to a mate the other day and he informed me that the Karitai track form smails beach to highcliff road is closed, abotts hill road closed, the pylon track and other tracks out to Lake mahinerangi closed also.\

whats happened to close them and why has it been allowed to happen?

Hi,
I was informed about this last weekend at the NZFWDA Meeting. We have started the wheels rolling and talking to the DCC about these. I will keep you informed of any progress

that would be good as i have nearly got me offroader finished n was looking for somewhere to go for a small play to iron out the kinks that come with the build

If anyone has a good contact in DCC that might help

Thanks

Is Abbots Hill actually closed? I was at the bottom of it the other day and it looked the same as always....

yep it is according to the council. ya get fined n allsorts if ya get caught. but if theres no gates or signs then they can't do sweet f all untill theyget some offical signage or something at either end. then if you get caught you havent got a legal leg to stand on.

Karitai is still open, we took a mate's Niva up last weekend. Pretty deep ruts though.

yeah whats happend allright.

Im in dunedin and its dissapointing that their are a few (not many) tracks around too start with and then to find out that we are not ment to be their anyway. Im in the same boat as 2roky and just want somewhere to have a small play and not cause any trouble or damage.

Aye, someone needs to start a letter writing campaign to the DCC.

If there are less and less areas for to play people will just do dumb stuff; and no one wants that...

I'm really jealous of Chch, where the Council is progressive enough to provide a 4WD play area - even though Chch has many pretty good places to 4WD without doing damage.

The DCC could learn from this.

baxter wrote:Aye, someone needs to start a letter writing campaign to the DCC.

If there are less and less areas for to play people will just do dumb stuff; and no one wants that...

I'm really jealous of Chch, where the Council is progressive enough to provide a 4WD play area - even though Chch has many pretty good places to 4WD without doing damage.

The DCC could learn from this.

The grass is always greener on the other side aye

Updates?.

abbots hill has a fallen tree and a locked gate across it. pylon track got closed for logging operations in the area. no idea if its open yet. Karatai should have been closed as it was too close to town, idiots got hold of it..

there is apparently cameras out through the forestry over whare flat and also out through the mahinerangi waipori areas to try and catch people off the road. so that they can be fined for damages apparently

Was up mount cargill road the other day and 4wders have made tracks up there, some quite deep ruts and bogs. Anyone been there/ seen this?

First place to go with all the other idiots as soon as there is snow...

Tomo.

2roky wrote:there is apparently cameras out through the forestry over whare flat and also out through the mahinerangi waipori areas to try and catch people off the road. so that they can be fined for damages apparently

how much truth is in this? is it a scare tatic or have people been fined or seen cameras themseles? If you did get caught id amagine they would throw the book at you.

Tomo.

me mate got a warning from one of the bosses of city forest who saw his truck on one of the cameras, not sure exactly where it was though. the tracks that have been used through the forestry's are mostly fire breaks and these have to be kept easily accesible by the the fire crews incase of a fire event.

heard a couple of guys on motor bikes got a 7 year trespass issued against them as well

As far as I'm aware no one has actually seen a camera or been done by one. But that's not to say it hasn't happened, or that they're not there.

Being private property (or at least publicly owned private property) in parts of those areas they'd certainly be allowed to; though I'd think many of the roads through were public access so as long as you're not damaging them you're not actually doing anything wrong? ie if cameras are in place and they're smart they'll leave most people alone 4x4ing and only go after those who do actual damage (which is fair enough).

Though there obviously needs to be clearer info on where you are and aren't allowed, etc.



I live near Mt Cargill and used to play there occasionally, but the area is indeed getting too damaged in the last couple of years. Now I generally avoid it unless dry (ie no damage).

This area is an excellent lesson to the DCC to see what people will do when there's no where they can go off-road. Though to be fair to the DCC, as far as I'm aware no one has raised the issue with them at any of the recent community plan etc hearings etc...

im suprised no one has complained about cargill, it was a bloody mess the other week, someone had had alot of fun. Apart from the firebreak roads, i assume you would get a warning/ fine for driving along side the main forestry roads. Some good 4wdn to be had there, yet i guess you are tresspassing as not on the public road? parts of whare flat had been rocked off due to damage/ complaints etc.

Would the DCC take any notice of letters/ 4wders raising our concerns? Must be worth a try though i think the response would be join a club and go on private land.

the clear areas either side of the public roads are actually classed as fire breaks as well. Cargill will be the next place to be lock up or at least rocked off i havent been up there to 4wd for quiet some time now. im guessing the idiots have gotten hold of it now and buggered it.

as for getting the council to do anything i think a petition would be needed as it would be easier to get support that way as most people are to lazy to write a letter. also that way you would get support from non 4wders as well that can see a dedicated area as a good thing

I think a petition is a very good idea, i am keen to push foward with this issue if others are.

Tomo.

im keen to do it just not sure how to go about it

surf_tomo wrote:

2roky wrote:there is apparently cameras out through the forestry over whare flat and also out through the mahinerangi waipori areas to try and catch people off the road. so that they can be fined for damages apparently

how much truth is in this? is it a scare tatic or have people been fined or seen cameras themseles? If you did get caught id amagine they would throw the book at you.

Tomo.

Or you could throw rocks at the cameras

2roky wrote:im keen to do it just not sure how to go about it

ok i guess we need a semi formal letter thing typed up with a petition attached

Doing the wording etc for a petition is pretty easy - I'll happily do that if you want.

But the hard bit is collecting a good number of signatures, getting traction in the media, and putting on a sensible logical and reasonable face on when we meet with DCC peeps. I expect it'd be a bit of an ongoing campaign to actually get any results.

Anyone up for any of that?




Having said that, it doesn't seem like a thing that would be best approached with a petition; ie it takes a lot of effort to collect the large numbers of siggys required to make petitions look important to councilors.

I reckon a better approach might be to go public and make it a talking point; While the general public don't give a toss about 4x4ing - but they do give a toss about public access to ares, and they do give a toss about reckless 4x4ers who wreck areas because there's no where to play (though we'd have to make the connection clear between recklessness and its cause being a lack of official places to play) , and they do give a toss the Chch council better services than Dunedin.

Where are local 4x4 clubs with on this issue? Maybe they're already doing something we can help with?

You could always do an online petition:

http://www.gopetition.co.uk/

getting the general public to see the damage in public areas will be easy just need to go and take pics up cargil and whare flat along the sides of the roads. this will show the damages being caused the hit them with the solution of having an area set aside for us to go to.
as for getting the signitures im happy to go door knocking and or sit out side one of the malls with a sign or two for a while. could even do the online thing as suggested. but dont think to many people would find it, personally

just an idea.

the 4wd clubs wont be worrying about a public area as they already have their own to use

2roky wrote:getting the general public to see the damage in public areas will be easy just need to go and take pics up cargil and whare flat along the sides of the roads. this will show the damages being caused the hit them with the solution of having an area set aside for us to go to.

If only it was that simple.

If you got a moronic reporter (of which there seems to be an increasing amount these days), they just look at the damage and write a story about the evils of 4x4s. The solution of having officially sanctioned play areas needs to be an inherent part of the story; ie do exactly as you say, but do it specifically as part of the petition (asking for official areas) launch.


PS - we also need to have an answer for the DCC who will simply say 'join a 4x4 club'. The issue of diminishing public access would be what I'd focus on (though I know little about it). And of course that that not all 4x4ing need be destructive.


PPS - I'm writing some suggested wording for a petition. I'll pop it here when I'm done for your comments etc.

baxter wrote:Doing the wording etc for a petition is pretty easy - I'll happily do that if you want.

But the hard bit is collecting a good number of signatures, getting traction in the media, and putting on a sensible logical and reasonable face on when we meet with DCC peeps. I expect it'd be a bit of an ongoing campaign to actually get any results.

Anyone up for any of that?

Definitally up for it. Likewise i am happy to collect signatures/ opinions of people to try and get an area set aside. I agree that the local clubs (anyone a member?) have their own private land/ places to go. I think this will take a while, but if we dont do something about it, who will? and whats happening in the mean time to A the landscape and B the rep of 4wd owners out there.

Furthermore things that need to be made clear;

.not everyone wants to join a club(IMO this is the first thing we will get told to do)
.that we are not reckless upon the landscape, but there is impacts due to no where to go
.Look at the progressive steps ChCh council has made

Tomo.

baxter wrote:PS - we also need to have an answer for the DCC who will simply say 'join a 4x4 club'. The issue of diminishing public access would be what I'd focus on (though I know little about it). And of course that that not all 4x4ing need be destructive.


PPS - I'm writing some suggested wording for a petition. I'll pop it here when I'm done for your comments etc.

exactly what i was thinking/ wrighting. Sounds good

im mite whip a email off to the chch council and get them to give me a brief outline of what they have done up there