It’s been 10 years since QEII National Trust covenants were registered over 95% of the land area of four high country stations between Arrowtown and Lake Wanaka — Motatapu, Mt Soho, Glencoe and Coronet Peak.
Called Mahu Whenua, meaning "healing the hand", the covenants effectively created what then-minister of conservation Nick Smith called "New Zealand’s first national park in private hands".
The stations’ leases had been bought by British record producer Mutt Lange between 2003 and 2011 — in the earlier years with then-wife, Canadian country-pop singer Shania Twain.
Long before the covenants were put in place, Lange bankrolled a multi-generational project to heal the ravages of 150 years of burning, mining and grazing.
Through Lange company Soho Property, that work’s been overseen by former high country farmer Russell Hamilton for more than two decades, but in recent years he’s increasingly handed over the reins to his daughter Jo Booker, who’s already been involved in the work for more than a decade herself.
Booker says she hasn’t paid much attention to the anniversary "because we just get on with the work that needs to be done".
That work has included declaring war on wilding trees, shooting and trapping tens of thousands of pests, planting many thousands of native trees and shrubs, protecting wetlands and creating predator-free areas for birds.
"There were areas that were as chewed out as a baby’s backside, and very drought-prone, that are now coated in regenerating manuka and beech forest.
"It’s amazing the number of birds back in the valley, and most of that’s down to habitat restoration."
Strong relationships have been forged with groups like the Southern Lakes Sanctuary and Predator Free Arrowtown, while teams of academics and students from the University of Otago make regular field trips as part of a long-term project to systematically monitor the changes in vegetation, aquatic life, birds, reptiles and insects.
However, as far as the general public’s concerned, the biggest change has been growing public access.
Soho Property has worked with QEII to create an "incredible network" of 157km of walkways and cycle trails, Booker says.
They include the many shorter trails out the back of Arrowtown, but also the Motatapu Track, the 50km Coronet Loop Trail and the Mahu Whenua Traverse — with its unique ‘Turk’ huts — for cross-country skiing and summer hiking.
The trust’s Central Otago regional rep, Rob Wardle, says the Mahu Whenua covenants are special, not only because the area they protect "far exceeds" anything else in the country.
Although the Motatapu Track was a requirement of the Overseas Investment Office in giving approval for Lange to buy two of the stations, he’s "gone way beyond any sort of minimum expectations", Wardle says.
"It’s been a massive job and an ongoing one, but it’s been really satisfying seeing the public really enjoying the area."
