Kiwi sanctuary in centre of storm

Kerikeri locals say public access to a mid-North ecological treasure may be at risk when nature reserve Aroha Island is leased out as a money-making venture.
The 12ha Kerikeri Inlet island is a kiwi sanctuary and ecology centre, currently open to the public and schoolchildren six days a week for most of the year.
Aroha Island was sold to the Queen Elizabeth II trust in 1984 at a fraction of its market value by Colin Little on the understanding it remain in the trust's hands and open to the public.
New Zealand Kiwi Foundation trustee Russell Thomas is concerned that access to the island - currently six days a week year-round, bar 10 winter planting weeks - will be restricted under the lease.
"It's a beautiful place, and Colin Little expected it to remain as it was when he handed it over," he said. Mr Thomas said the foundation wants Aroha Island, linked to the mainland by a causeway through Department of Conservation land, to be open to the public for most of the year.
"The island's value to the community is its ecological value. There's no value to the community whatsoever if a millionaire has it and opens it once or twice a year," he said.
"The covenant says it has to be open to the public but it does not say whether it has to be one day a year as an open day, or virtually all year round as it is now."
QEII trust chief executive Margaret McKee said it was a "non-issue".
The trust was simply switching from employing managers to a lease operation, similar to how DOC campgrounds and the Far North District Council's Tauranga Bay holiday park are run. The island currently incurs operating costs of more than $40,000.
"To say it's a storm in a teacup is actually overstating it," she said.
"We will continue to have managed public access very similar to what's currently available."
Miss McKee said the trust was charged with protecting the area's open spaces, and was a "very respectful owner" looking for a long-term guardian for the island.
"It's an inevitable shift. There is nothing at risk, there is nothing at stake."
Greg and Gay Blunden, managers of the island for the past nine years, have been told to pack their bags. Dr Blunden, foundation convenor and Far North representative for the QEII trust, was unable to comment.
Tender agent Bayleys Realty Group says on its website the lease gives the opportunity to be guardian of a "unique ecological waterfront property".
Tenderers are required to submit a business plan and agent Nicki Kempthorne said interest had been "huge".
Community board member Jill Smith is worried about how the tender document gels with the 22-year-old covenant agreement.
"I could just see a lawyer driving a bulldozer through these documents," she said. "The covenant says one thing and the tender agreement says another, and I just don't think they're a good mix."
She said one of the Kerikeri and Waipapa community's top concerns was access to waterways, the coast and beaches, and the lease put access to Aroha Island at risk.
Mr Thomas was also concerned about the ecological impact: "If some millionaire took it over they may not give a stuff about what actually happens conservation-wise."
He said while the trust was expecting to make $30,000 a year from the lease, visitor numbers would have to increase considerably to make that kind of profit.
"We can't think of anything that could make that sort of sum of money on the island without interfering with the existing covenants," he said.
"Numbers like that traipsing round all over the place - that would destroy so much of the ecological value. Kiwis wouldn't stay there."
The island currently hosts 5000 visitors a year, five percent of whom stay overnight. Resource consents limit the number of people allowed to stay on the island at any one time to 75 campers and 14 in cottages.
The kiwi foundation had been in discussions with the QEII trust about management of the island since July 2005. Its offer to buy the island at "book value" - $425,000 - was turned down in November that year.
Far North District Mayor Yvonne Sharp was appointed as a trustee to the QEII trust board in 2003. Ms Sharp declined to comment, directing questions to Miss McKee.