Police are planning a crackdown on people trespassing on a block of private land near the Lake Outlet Holiday Park in Wanaka, in an area popular with trail bike riders and four-wheel-drive users.
The land is bordered by Outlet Rd and Sticky Forest, and was recently bought by an Auckland investor who has leased the property to a farmer to run stock.
Senior Constable Mike Johnston said in the past, the land had been a hot spot for an "unofficial group" of motocross enthusiasts, until a young boy was seriously injured in a trail-bike accident several years ago, after which trail bike riding on the land was prohibited.
However, owners of some unregistered and unwarranted trail bikes were continuing to access the land, typically through the back of the Kirimoko subdivision, near Sticky Forest, or from the holiday park on the lake outlet side. People in 4WDs were also using the land for off-road driving.
"They're tearing the paddocks up to the point it's almost effectively a form of wilful damage, as far as the farmer's concerned," Snr Const Johnston said.
Motorised vehicles on the property presented a hazard to the stock that would be placed there over the next few weeks, and those without spark inhibitors were also a "big safety risk" in the long grass on the land.
While the property was fenced, fences had been cut or pushed over in places to enable access for trail bikes and 4WDs.
Snr Const Johnston said the new landowner was happy for recreational users on foot and bikes to continue to access the land, but wanted to "establish the rules" for people entering his property in motorised vehicles and had given police authority to act accordingly.
"This is, I suppose, a warning from the police, in conjunction with the landowner, that no trail bikes and 4WDs and vehicles are allowed on that land and people will be trespassed.
"There's a clash between rural and urban, and there are growing pains in Wanaka as it expands, and from the police side of it, we've got to support the landowner, because he's got every right to decide who goes on his property."
