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The Government has purchased a 758 hectare Nelson property to ensure public access to Harwood's hole, the deepest vertical cave shaft in New Zealand.
Conservation Minister Chris Carter said the purchase of Canaan Downs Farm for $1.8 million ensured a "natural gem" would not be subdivided and sold off to developers.
Canaan
Downs Farm covers an area around Takaka Hill next to the Abel Tasman National Park and is part of the last stronghold of a rare species of carnivorous land snail.
"The farm is the main access way to Harwood's Hole, a 176 metre marble shaft that is an increasingly popular destination for cavers and sightseers," Mr Carter said.
"It also contains some very rare and remarkable karst (rock) landforms that are a significant part of our natural heritage.
"An outstanding feature of these land formations is a polje -- a Slavic word for field. A polje is a flat-floored valley made up of karst that contains sink holes filled with sediment. In heavy rainfall large pools form over the sink holes which, being partially blocked, only very slowly drain the water. There are only a handful of polje in New Zealand."
Mr Carter's spokesman said the purchase secured about 80 per cent of the privately owned land within an enclave surrounded by Abel Tasman National Park. The land would initially be gazetted as Scenic Reserve with a possible long term goal of being added to the national park, he said.
Mr Carter said the land purchased from current owners Tim and Jane Greenhough was in six blocks, each with a separate title and could have been sold off for subdivision if the current owners had not offered the land for sale first to the Government for conservation purposes.
"I'm very grateful to the Greenhough family for having the foresight to do this," he said.
The Greenhoughs will continue to graze sheep on parts of the land for the next 16 months.
- NZPA
