Important Notices concerning use of Woodhill Forest

The public easement on Rimmer Road is now open, as normal for the summer season, from 6.30 am to 9 pm.

The public easement on Tasman Road to access the Waionui Inlet is now open, as normal for the summer season, from 6.30 am to 8.00 pm.

Kia tūpato!!  Te Ngahere o Woodhill is not a public park, it is an operational forest.  

All access to the forest requires a permit.  This excludes access to our licensed recreational operators in Te Ngahere o Woodhill.  For further information please call 09 420 9566 or email woodhill@kaiparamoana.com  

Woodhill is a working forest – beware of hazardous forestry and logging operations.  An air weapons range operates at times at the northern tip of the forest (ALL access is prohibited onto the NZDF Bombing Range). Please note the following conditions and restrictions relating to use of the forest, and applicable at all times: 

• No unauthorised public access
• All recreational activity within authorised areas by permit only.
• No motorised access permitted over or on the dunes into the Forest (other than the Rimmer Road 4WD beach access easement).
• The unloading of unregistered and/or unwarranted motorbikes or any off-road vehicle is not permitted from the Rimmer Road Beach car-park.
• Hunting/firearms by permit only.
• No fires/smoking in the forest or the dunes.
• No camping
• Public found outside of authorised / permitted areas without a permit may be trespassed.
• Information line 09 420 9566 ext 0.

• In the event of an emergency and if you see or smell smoke call 111

Forest Kaitiaki/Wardens are patrolling the forest.  If you are found in the forest without a permit, you will be asked to leave and risk being trespassed.

From time to time, certain sections of the forest where access is authorised will be closed, or their use restricted. There will also be times where one-off events take place in the forest.  This website is intended to provide you information relating to any restrictions.

We will update this section of the site when appropriate, with any current restrictions, and as much information as possible regarding when closures or restrictions will be lifted.

Public Notice

In 2013 Ngā Maunga Whakahii o Kaipara (NMWoK, the ‘corporate’ entity representing Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara) purchased the land under Woodhill Forest from the Crown as part of our Treaty of Waitangi settlement. The land then became privately owned. The primary reason for purchasing the land was a commercial investment to fund the hapū’s social, educational, cultural and health programmes.

As private land, there is no obligation on NMWoK to provide access to the public – just as there is no public right to roam on the private land any of us own, our homes.

Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara has for centuries now welcomed new people into our region – even when for periods of time we became marginalised and dispossessed. We understand and value the development of a strong community and will play our part. The various activities we run or licence within Woodhill (e.g. Bike Park, Tree Adventures, off-roading / dirt biking, paintball) give opportunities to the public to enjoy the forest – whilst contributing to the commercial return we expected when we decided to purchase it. However unquestionably the most significant activity in the forest is forestry, which we both licence and now, increasingly, participate in as a joint venture partner. Forestry is a high-risk industry and the forest is a workplace. Other mobile businesses such as firewood collection also use the forest. One-off events are increasingly common. There is even a live-firing weapons range at the northern end of the forest and military exercises at times outside of that area. We have strict obligations on us as the landowner, landlord and now forestry company to keep this workplace, and all within it, safe as required under legislation. The new health and safety legislation that came into force this year (2016) is much tighter than the old and sets out massive penalties for our senior staff and board members should an incident occur and our processes be found lacking. This encourages caution. We know other organisations with similar responsibilities to us are grappling with how to manage their obligations in a sensible way. You may well see a range of responses but no-one wants to be the test case in a prosecution under the new legislation. Our tenant businesses are as conscious as we are of their organisational risks operating in the forest. We need to take their concerns into account in how we manage the forest.

So, for now, having taken legal advice, discussed these matters in depth with our tenants and business partners, and considering our own appetite for risk (especially those in positions of authority for us who would face fines into the millions should we be convicted of a failing under health and safety legislation), our cautious position is that the public may only access Woodhill Forest by permit, or in one of the licenced activity areas. For horse-riders, this means the exclusive horse park area, the boundary of which is described as the ‘perimeter trail’ on your maps. As registered riders, we know we have your details should we need to contact you. We know you have been informed of the dangers in the forest and made aware of where to find information on changing situations in the forest (e.g. areas that are out of bounds because of harvesting activity). We know the area within which you will be found (and importantly where you should not be, but where we could then permit other activity).  The same can be said of all the other licensed activities we sanction in the forest. This knowledge and ability to exert control and keep things safe are absent when we don’t know who is in the forest, doing what and where. Managing this mosaic of use takes a lot of staff time and attention – and so there is a cost to this. There is also a limit to the complexity of use that we believe we can actually keep track of across all 12,500 hectares of the forest, and keep everyone within safe to a reasonable standard. Only we out of all the businesses/groups/individuals that access and use the forest can appreciate, and need to know, everything that is happening in it every day. Thus we reserve the right to only permit what we believe we can safely manage. We will continue to make use of tools like media, signage, pamphlets, our kaitiaki educators and trespass, to discharge our responsibilities and preserve our own rights.

Constructive feedback is welcome, but we will continue to take a precautionary approach that allows us to feel we are discharging our duty of care to ourselves and our workers, our tenants and business partners, and our customers. Over time we will make changes to the forest regime as experience, understanding and the mosaic of activities change. Some of these may be less restrictive, and some may prove to need to be more restrictive.

It would be easy (and tempting) to discuss and debate public access in the forest forever, but we are loathe to endlessly revisit this. Now and again we will respond if there is something new to be added or clarified but generally, we hope and trust that people will respect us as a private landowner and business. We know we won’t meet the wants of all the wider public who would like to have unfettered access to the forest, but this posting sets out again why we are acting as we are. We will take note of reasonable suggestions but will generally consider these in our own way and time as we manage the large, complex beast that is Woodhill Forest.

WIND TESTING IN WOODHILL FOREST

• A wind monitoring mast will be installed at the southern end of Woodhill forest. A second mast location has also been consented but at this stage there are no plans to erect a second mast
• The mast will be in place until enough data has been gathered, which may be up to four years.
• Ngā Maunga Whakahii o Kaipara (NMWoK) is receiving a rental for the placement of the wind monitoring mast on the land.
• Foundation construction will begin next month (June) and the mast is expected to be in place by end of July. Prep and construction work will be preceded by appropriate Ngāti Whātua ceremony, and ground disturbing activity will be monitored.
• The wind monitoring mast will be 80 m tall and 22.5 cm in diameter. While it will be able to be seen from a distance, it will appear as a thin line and in most conditions barely visible.  Installing wind monitoring masts is standard practice in the early stages of investigating the potential of a new wind farm development site.
• Reweti Marae reps and community have been approached for opinion on the installation of the wind test mast (as the closest marae) and are supportive.
• The actual development of a wind farm would be a separate process from wind monitoring and there has been no pre-determination that NMWoK and Meridian would proceed to develop a wind farm, even if the wind resource proves to be good.
• For NMWoK the decision to allow the development of a wind farm in the future would require consideration of cultural, environmental, social and financial impacts. These will be considered during the period of time that wind monitoring is being carried out.
• Should a wind farm be developed in the future, there will be a consent process to be followed that will include stakeholder engagement.
• Any future wind farm would only occupy a small proportion of what is now forest and there are many ancillary activities that could take place under and around wind turbines, both existing and new (e.g. recreational pursuits such as mountain biking, alternative crops and bee-keeping, grazing, events etc.).

About Meridian:

Meridian is the largest generator of electricity in New Zealand and only generates from renewable energy sources. They own and operate five wind farms across New Zealand, and six hydro power generation stations (the Manapouri power station in Fiordland and five hydro power stations on the Waitaki River). They retain a portfolio of new generation development options ready to be advanced when the market requires. Meridian is also a retailer of electricity to more than 217,000 homes and businesses across New Zealand.

CURRENT CLOSURES / RESTRICTIONS IN WOODHILL FOREST:

VEHICLES LEFT IN THE FOREST AFTER HOURS WILL BE TOWED AT THE OWNERS EXPENSE or A RELEASE FEE OF UP TO $250.00 WILL BE CHARGED BY FOREST SECURITY:

ARROW SECURITY 0800 277 697 (Restall Road gate)

BLACK HAWK SECURITY 027 535 5770 (Rimmer Road gate)

WOODHILL FOREST INFORMATION LINE 09 420 9566 ext 0

HFMNZ (Hancock Forest Management New Zealand) 09 470 1300 (office hours) or 09 283 9019 (after hours)

If you witness any suspicious activity in the forest or on the beach, please phone the Crime stoppers line on

0800-555-111 or report the incident on 09-839-0600