Police the off-roaders
Inspecting trail-bike damage on the South Coast. Photo: Alden Williams.
The Wellington City Council has given a ‘final warning’ that that driving four wheel drive vehicles and trailbikes round Wellington’s south coast may be prohibited except to bach owners and for special events, mainly because irresponsible owners are going off track and ruining fragile land.
Ill behaved drivers and riders are coming into conflict with local tourists, landowners and, quite often, each other on the track which stretches from Owhiro Bay along past the Karori Stream.
There are reports of property owners abused, fragile land destroyed as people drive off track, and people out to see the seals frightened, as 4WDs and especially motorbikes “hurtle by”.
Grant Purdie says his club has been working with the Wellington City Council for at least ten years to keep access to the south coast safe for all users.
“Every time we see someone driving inland off track we approach them to try and tell them the better way to treat the landscape, sometimes it works, sometimes people take no notice and we just get abused.”
He says the two main problems are vehicles frightening walkers as they speed from Ohiro Bay round past Red Rocks to ‘Devil’s Gate’ (near Sinclair Head), and past there driving inland and uphill off the coastal track which ruins fragile coastal flora and fauna.
“The most obvious offenders are trail bikes which are often noisy and fast”.
Purdie says there are increasing numbers of trail bikes (many unregistered) and four wheel drive vehicles whose drivers have no respect for the land or other people. He says “ruthless policing” had solved the problem in Horowhenua and he believes the most obvious answer is to station a police officer by Red Rocks which is the main access route at busy times, but the local policeman has told him that police resources are too short to spare an officer for that job.
Purdie says his club, and the council, have put in much time to plan signs telling drivers how to behave which the council has put up. The club has run working parties to plant native coastal species provided by the council. But although that helps, it’s not the whole answer, as very often offenders are not members of a club.
Purdie says there are only two off-road places in the Wellington region where the public has a right of access.
“One is the Wellington south coast, the other is a DOC administered track in the Tararua Ranges. However if off roaders join a club, whether a 4wd or a trail-bike club then they will get access to places like the Akatarawa Forest and a number of private properties, where access is responsibly managed there are lots of tracks for them to enjoy, at all levels of difficulty”.
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