Land owner and occupiers on same side

The former motor camp at Taipa Point, now occupied by John and Wikatana Popata. Photo / Christine Cornege

The Far North section being occupied by two protesting brothers is owned by an Auckland businessman, who laments the over-development on New Zealand's coast.

John and Wikatana Popata have been occupying a 0.7ha site at 55 Taipa Point Rd, Taipa, for more than a week, claiming it was "stolen" from the local iwi, Ngati Kahu.

The section is owned by Auckland retailer Kevyn Male, past president of the Newmarket Business Association, who established the Route 66 Newmarket clothing store.

He is also the author of several books, including Good Old Kiwi Baches, a lament for the traditional-style holiday homes which he says are being replaced by multimillion-dollar palaces.

Like the Popata brothers, Mr Male has mourned extensive coastal development and praised baches as a dying breed.

He has pointed to Taupo Bay where he has a bach and said that the old baches were being gradually bought up and bowled over and replaced by "sand castles".

In the early 1990s, properties on the Taupo Bay waterfront were selling for up to $500,000, he said.

But now, $1.2 million was a more common figure.

"That makes every one of the front-row properties worth more than $1 million. All 31 of them.

"No one who can afford to spend $1 million buying a property is going to leave an old bach on it."

His book reminisced about knocked-up holiday houses with long-drop toilets, fibrolite walls, corrugated iron roofs, Formica tables, Shacklock coal ranges, linoleum, lace curtains and no sign of a TV.

Mr Male's property - which was on the market before the occupation - is at the end of Foreshore Rd, which runs along the beachfront and is next to the reserve owned by the Far North District Council.

Plans for the property could carve into as many as 12 sections.

Mr Male, of St Marys Bay, owns the section via Twin Waters Estate, registered with the Companies Office on June 17, 2004.

Russell Toplis of Remuera is co-shareholder, although Mr Male controls all the shares.

A family spokesman said it was not prudent to comment on the occupation.

Senior Sergeant Geoff Ryan of Kaitaia police said staff were watching the Popata brothers' occupation of the former motor camp.

But no reports of any offences had been laid and the landowner required no action, he said.

The brothers' protest is unusual because it has the backing of their iwi, Ngati Kahu, and is on private land.

Mr Ryan said although people had contacted the police demanding to know what action was being taken, police told them no offence had been committed and no intervention was planned.

"Police are not going to act unless we are asked to," he said, adding that he had spoken to a relative of the landowner about the situation just yesterday.

"He's happy to take a wait-and-see approach."