The access road to Twelve Mile Delta Recreation Reserve,
off the Glenorchy-Queenstown Rd, will be closed during
working hours, Monday to Friday, from today until
mid-November, while roading, toilet and amenity facilities
are upgraded. Photo by James Beech.
Public access to the Lake Wakatipu foreshore at Twelve
Mile Delta Recreation Reserve will be doubled, once a $500,000
upgrade is finished by the Department of Conservation (Doc)
Wakatipu area office in time for the summer season.
The Queenstown-based department today starts its biggest
visitor infrastructure development project this year, when
contractors begin sealing 365m of access road from the
Glenorchy-Queenstown Rd down the hill to the reserve.
The road will be closed between 7.30am and 6pm, Monday to
Friday, from today to mid-November.
Doc recommended Moke Lake, 4.5km from the resort on the
Glenorchy-Queenstown Rd, as an alternative camp site.
The cement stabilisation and sealing, designed to make the
road suitable for all vehicles, is the first of three prongs
in Doc's revamp of popular Twelve Mile.
The estimated 15ha to 18ha reserve is used by more than
40,000 campers, walkers, cyclists and tourism concessionaires
with their clients every year.
Tenders close on August 20 for the construction of new
toilets and landscaping, to be done by the end of November.
The fully contained unisex toilets would have standard and
disabled cubicles.
Disposal would not occur on site.
About 8000 native plants typical of the delta environment
were to be planted in the spring.
Improving Twelve Mile's boat-launching capabilities by
creating a reversing point for vehicles and trailers aimed to
take the pressure off demand at Wilson Bay.
Twelve Mile was "a gem waiting to be cut," Doc capital works
project manager Richard Struthers told the Queenstown Times.
The upgrade had been on Doc's agenda for at least three
years, but other projects had taken priority, or funding was
not available.
The improvements "will have a significant impact on how
people can take advantage of the area," Mr Struthers said.
"Twelve Mile is probably the prime lakeside recreation
environment Doc [Wakatipu] administers.
You've got camping, swimming, fishing, gold-panning, boat
launching and linkages to other trail networks."
Mr Struthers said Twelve Mile was the "hub at the centre of
the wheel, with a few spokes to be connected".
"Eventually our objective is to link our 12 Mile walkway with
Lake Dispute tracks and then that connects to Moke Lake and
it becomes quite a good launching or destination point.
"And also connect the walking track to Wilson Bay. You could
potentially walk from Twelve Mile to Arthur's Point, via the
Moonlight Track."
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