Where to welcome Matariki

Discover the Herenga ā Nuku Case Map

The Herenga ā Nuku Case Map shows almost all the cases the commission has dealt with or is still dealing with. It is a valuable tool for enhancing transparency and public knowledge of outdoor access cases across Aotearoa.

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The colourful difference between base maps and public access maps

“Excuse me, but why are you sending walkers down my driveway?”

It’s a perfectly reasonable question, arising from a crucial difference in the two types of maps we need to use in our mapping system: first, base maps (background maps), and second, public access maps.

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Dunedin track builder wins Outdoor Access Champion award

Twelve years and seven rugged kilometres of track building in honour of a late friend has earned a Dunedin volunteer a national award. Last month, Arthur Blondell, a dedicated community volunteer, received an Outdoor Access Champion award for the track he built and maintains, which follows the south branch of the Waikouaiti River in the picturesque Silverpeaks Scenic Reserve.

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Map showcases outdoor access champions around the motu

In the last 13 years, we have recognised 45 people and groups as Outdoor Access Champions. Our champions stretch in the north from Rod Brown, who led efforts to open public access to a hidden waterfall in central Kerikeri, to the Ōmaui Tracks Trust in Southland, which formed a walkway to the top of Ōmaui Hill, with a fine view of Foveaux Strait and Bluff Harbour.

See our new interactive map

Types of legal access on land

Trailmakers need certain, enduring, and practical access on land to build and maintain tracks. With the help of our trail network members, we have published a short guide for groups identifying three types of legal access that can help trailmakers  —  access on public land, easements that allow public access and access to or beside waterways using marginal strips, esplanade strips and access strips

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Lake Ōkāreka joins Plan My Walk

Lake Ōkāreka is the first community group to share its trail information with Mountain Safety Council’s Plan My Walk App. Herenga ā Nuku is hosting the GIS and track description information for local community groups and trail trusts that do not have their own GIS capability. They provide a description of the track they maintain, we host the information in our database, and Mountain Safety Council automatically pulls it through to appear on Plan My Walk. The Lake Ōkāreka track takes two hours to loop the lake, passing farmland, dense native bush and a contracted wetland boardwalk.

Explore Lake Ōkāreka Loop Track

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50^th group joins trailmaker map

Friends of Wairoa Stream became the 50th community trailmaker group to join our national map of trailmakers. Friends of Wairoa Stream have formed a 4km public walkway and wildlife corridor along the Wairoa Stream and two tributary streams at Kerikeri. So far, they have planted about 24,500 native plants of about 60 species to link bush remnants as far as possible to achieve continuous forest along the track and the stream bank. This has enabled public access to a formerly hidden waterfall named Te Wairere that had become inaccessible and lost in a wilderness of weeds.

National map of trailmakers

Overseas Investment Act and public access

Last year’s ministerial directive changed the nature of our work regarding the Overseas Investment Act. Herenga ā Nuku is currently not expected to offer advice on potential public access benefits arising from an overseas investment in sensitive land. However, we continue to help overseas investors implement existing commitments regarding public access.

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