A month after the Queenstown Lakes District Council relocated a fence erected near the Cardrona Hotel by Andre Prassinos, another fence has appeared close by.
Mr Prassinos, who is living near Christchurch, but is a lakes area landowner and ratepayer, yesterday confirmed to the Otago Daily Times he was responsible for the new fence being placed around unclaimed land opposite the Cardrona Hotel.
While council workers had moved the earlier fence on June 20, council CEO Duncan Field yesterday said it would not be removing the new fence.
The reason the old fence was dismantled was because it affected car parking at the hotel and the busy winter visitor season was then approaching.
Mr Field said he struggled to understand what outcome there was for Mr Prassinos.
The council had applied to the New Zealand Public Trust and it would become custodian of the unclaimed land in lieu of the departed owner.
Mr Prassinos said he was within his rights to put up the fences around the unclaimed land.
"Dozens, if not hundreds, of people around the country are doing it."
The land at the centre of the row was abandoned by Chinese gold-miners, who fled the area after the collapse of the Cardrona alluvial gold-mining boom in the late 19th Century.
To officially claim the land as his own under the District land Registrar's "adverse possession" rule, Mr Prassinos has to pay rates and show he has made substantial improvements to the land - for the next 20 years.
Mr Prassinos said he had contacted the Chinese Embassy to try to find the land's rightful owners.
"I don't trust the council to come in and administer the land in an appropriate way," he said.
Cardrona Valley historian Tim Scurr said he had noticed the latest fence was built last weekend and said its reappearance had "made his blood boil".
"He [Mr Prassinos] is an upstart who just thinks he can come in here and start claiming land willy-nilly. It's totally against what the [Cardrona] community wants," he said.
Mr Scurr's brother John, chairman of the Cardrona Valley Resident and Ratepayers Association said the council was approached to help administer unclaimed land pockets in the valley.
The council agreed to help manage the land and ensure any benefits would be applied to the community.
