A swing bridge across a stream on the Rees-Dart tramping track has been granted resource consent - six months after it was built.
The Department of Conservation (Doc) is blaming an ''administrative oversight'' for failing to apply for the land use consent before construction began.
The 45m bridge across Twenty-Five Mile Stream was completed in April at a cost of $25,000.
It means trampers and hunters no longer have to ford the stream, which claimed the lives of a husband and wife in the 1990s and is considered impassable when in flood.
Doc Queenstown partnerships ranger Chris Hankin said although the department gained a building consent for the project, it did not realise a land use consent was required until told by the Queenstown Lakes District Council at about the time the bridge was completed.
Doc was granted the consent by the council a week ago after lodging a retrospective application in September, he said.
A consultant's report accompanying the application said Doc began building the bridge in the ''mistaken belief'' it was exempt from the requirements of the council's district plan and was permitted by the Conservation Management Strategy.
However, the bridge's location on Rees Valley Station on leasehold farmland administered by the Commissioner of Crown Lands meant it was not covered by the strategy, the report said.
The bridge is about 25km from Glenorchy and 90 minutes' walk from the track's start.
Mr Hankin said there were an average of two ''near misses'' at the ford each year, and growing numbers of inexperienced trampers on the track in recent years had strengthened the case for the bridge.
