Wellington’s regional council has placed the winning bid on more than 1000 hectares of land, featuring unique wetlands and bordering on existing regional park in Eastbourne.
The 1366-hectare block is part farmland, part native bush, contains wetlands teeming with biodiversity and has access to the coast — plus, it borders two separate sections of East Harbour Regional Park, effectively connecting the two.
The sale listing put its capital value at $7.43 million — the regional council bought it for $9 million, including $1m gifted from the estate of a local conservationist.
The land had been held by the same owners for the past 60 years, and when it came up for sale, there were calls from locals for the regional council to buy it and turn it into regional park.
Greater Wellington Regional Council chairperson Daran Ponter said the land connected the Northern Forest to Parangarahu Lakes, making the park whole.
“From Wainuiomata saddle to the sea at Pencarrow, the entire eastern backdrop behind Wellington Harbour is now in public ownership or protected through covenants.”
The $1m donation which the council said had made the sale possible was gifted from the estate of John Marsden Nankervis, a prominent local mountaineer and conservationist.
“Blocks of land come up like this, if you’re lucky, once a generation,” he said. “This won’t be a significant impact on rates, we’re cutting our operational budget to provide for this purchase.”
Environment Committee deputy chair Quentin Duthie said the council was “humbled by the estate’s contribution to conservation”.
“We hope the estate’s generosity fosters further philanthropy towards the council’s environmental goals.”
Penny Gaylor, chairperson of the council’s environment committee, explained the land would be managed by Rōpū Tiaki, a co-governance group of Taranaki Whānui and the council tasked with overseeing the Parangarahu Lakes.
The sale was “a once in a lifetime opportunity to secure land rich in biodiversity of significance to mana whenua,” she said.
“We look forward to working with our partners to unlock the land’s potential whether it be for conservation, recreation, carbon sequestration and maybe even power generation.”
Taranaki Whānui chairperson Kara Puketapu-Dentice said the iwi was supportive of the purchase.
He explained the lakes — Kōhanga Te Rā and Kōhanga Piripiri — were within whenua known as Parangarahu.
“We own the lake beds, which were transferred to Taranaki Whānui via our Treaty Settlement and we co-manage them with GWRC through a Joint Management Agreement, facilitated by Roopu Tiaki (our joint management committee).”
“We’ve made it clear to GWRC that if more land is acquired in the area, we expect to be involved – this move reflects GWRC honouring our shared relationship and mutual commitment to caring for this important area.”
The council said it would take ownership of the land in July — currently, about 400 hectares were being used for sheep and beef farming.
The land’s future would go out for public consultation, and for now, the public would not be able to access the land — that would have to wait until the planning process was complete.
“We’ll have to work through our regional planning network process to determine where walking access goes, which areas are going to be closed to access because they need to be protected… and probably a significant amount of pest destruction work that needs to be undertaken,” Ponter said.
He said owning this block of land would make pest control much easier along that coastline, as the council could now access all parts of it, leaving no safe refuge for pests.
In time, he said, there would be infrastructure in place for day walks, and perhaps facilities for camping and mountain biking.
He said there was also an old landfill site on part of the property which would need to be managed.
The vendor has declined RNZ’s request for comment.
rnz.co.nz
