Car 'hijacking' fires up land access debate

Hopes that a dispute over access to one of Northland's most famous beaches would be resolved peacefully have suffered a setback with the "hijacking" of a vehicle with four tourists on board.
Tensions over access to Shipwreck Bay at the southern end of Ninety Mile Beach - home to a surf break immortalised by the 1960s movie Endless Summer - have been simmering for months.
The dispute centres on a piece of Maori land between the beach and the end of the council-owned section of Foreshore Rd.
In the past, private vehicles had been allowed across the land, owned by Te Kohanga Trust, and businesses paid an annual concession to use it.
Claims of people driving recklessly on Foreshore Rd have seen the access closed regularly in recent months and frustrations boiled over on Sunday afternoon.
Ahipara man Greg Hall, who operates Tuatua Tours, claimed a man apparently representing the trust had got into his vehicle, which was occupied at the time by four tourists, and tried to back it on to trust-owned land.
The vehicle had been on public land when it was seized and had effectively been hijacked, Mr Hall said.
His "horrified" passengers had been collected by his partner.
Police were called from Kaitaia and were understood to be investigating.
Mr Hall said he was being hung out to dry and told the trust last week he was being driven out of business.
He claimed  the trust wanted to charge him twice what the Department of Conservation charged for the use of its estate.
"This isn't about respect of the whenua, it's all about money," he said.

 He had never refused to pay for access to the beach and had paid in the past.
All he wanted was a working agreement with the trust, but he found himself in an increasingly untenable situation, he said.
Last week, Mr Hall emailed Prime Minister John Key to plead for assistance as a final resort.
He told Mr Key, who is also the Minister of Tourism, that he was the holder of a DoC concession that still had five years to run but the trust had issued him with a trespass notice.
Northland MP John Carter is understood to no longer be involved in negotiations to sort out access.
This leaves only the Far North District Council and Te Kohanga trustees to resolve the issue.