KEY POINTS:
A large block of private land containing native forest and wetland has been saved from subdivision and will be added to Abel Tasman National Park.
Walkers on the park's coastal track pass near the Hadfield block when they cross Awaroa Inlet.
The property, on the western side of
the picturesque estuary, is the last major block of undeveloped land surrounded by the park.
Parts of the Nelson park's coast are clustered with baches and other development on privately owned land, including Awaroa Lodge, across the inlet and nearer the coast than the Hadfield block.
The state-funded Nature Heritage Fund has bought the block for $2.7 million from the Hadfield family, which had owned it since the 1860s.
Fund manager Allan McKenzie said yesterday it had been farmed, but much of it had reverted to bush, leaving only 50-60ha of grass.
It had continued to carry a few stock until the death around two years ago of the owner, William Hadfield, a retired farmer.
He said the purchase averted the risk of development.
"Some of the advisers to the family would have liked to see it put on the open market but they chose not to."
From sea level, the property rises to about 700m, containing beech trees and podocarps.
It has 10ha of wetland kahikatea forest, a forest type now virtually extinct in the region, and the largest known population of weeping inaka, an acutely-threatened type of dracophyllum tree found only in Nelson-Marlborough.
The property provides one of the few areas of coastal habitat left in the Nelson region for fernbirds, containing a significant population of the native species.
Conservation Minister Chris Carter said land on the park's coast was highly sought after.
The Hadfield property, which can be accessed by the Awaroa Rd, could have ended up as a multi-dwelling subdivision, Mr Carter said. "Instead, it will remain in its natural state for everyone. I am grateful to the Hadfield family ... for making it available to the Government.
" The property is important for biodiversity and recreation.
"Following the purchase of Canaan Downs in 2004, it is also one of the last major undeveloped private land holdings inside the Abel Tasman National Park."
Forest & Bird South Island field coordinator Eugenie Sage welcomed the purchase.
"I think it is a good deal. It will be a significant addition to the national park."
A Hadfield family member will continue to lease the existing house on the property.
