Tour operator arrested over access dispute with Maori

Shipwreck Bay. Photo / Supplied

A tour operator has been arrested for trespassing on Maori land at a beach-access flashpoint.

Police were not naming the arrested man yesterday, but Greg Hall, owner of Ahipara quad bike business Tua Tua Tours, confirmed it was him.

He was arrested at Shipwreck Bay, at the southern end of Ninety Mile Beach, on Saturday night.

Detective Sergeant Trevor Beatson, of Kaitaia police, said he had also been charged with reckless driving after allegedly knocking down a man on Te Kohanga Trust land between Foreshore Rd and the beach.

The man, thought to be a trust member's relative, had minor injuries.

Hall was issued with a trespass notice by police last month after nine months of mounting tension. He is expected to appear in Kaitaia District Court this week.

He told the Northern Advocate he would fight the charges.

Among past clients of his dune tours is Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates.

Hall has maintained that the accessway to the beach is a public road, but police say research by Land Information New Zealand and the Maori Land Court shows it is privately owned freehold Maori land.

Te Kohanga chairman Patau Tepania said people were free to "come and go as they please" across the trust's land, but commercial operators had to pay a fee. The income would be used to maintain the trust's campground and access road.

"We have to be seen to be doing the right thing [for trust shareholders], but this guy keeps pushing the envelope."

Mr Tepania said the issue was causing "a lot of grief". A local school had planned to stay at the campground but had pulled out because of the dispute.

The two sides had negotiated an agreement last year, only for Hall to back out in February, he said.

It was then that the trust had started blocking the quad bike operator's access.

There have been frequent police callouts and Kaitaia's police commander called a meeting last month involving the trustees, commercial operators and people whose homes can be reached only via the beach. After the meeting police issued a trespass notice against Hall.

Trustees were instructed not to stop him if he tried to cross their land, but to call the police.

Crossing the trust's beachfront property is the only practical way to get from council-owned Foreshore Rd to the beach.

A man associated with the trust is facing charges relating to an incident in early September in which a Tua Tua Tours vehicle with four tourists on board was allegedly hijacked.

- APN