Rotorua Daily Post
  • Rotorua Daily Post home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Residential property listings
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Rural
  • Sport

Locations

  • Tauranga
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō & Tūrangi

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales

Weather

  • Rotorua
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Rotorua Daily Post

Taupō's Waipahihi botanical garden native trees must be trimmed for airport safety

Dan Hutchinson
By Dan Hutchinson
Waikato News Director·Taupo & Turangi Herald·
28 Jun, 2023 09:02 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

The area of trees in the Waipahihi Botanical Gardens in Taupō that needs to be trimmed or felled. The peg at the bottom shows the distance to where the trees must be trimmed. Video / Dan Hutchinson

Volunteer gardeners at Taupō's Waipahihi Botanical gardens are horrified that mature native trees must be “decapitated” because they have grown into the flight path for the local airport.

The gardens and the airport had their beginnings at about the same time, with the first planting day on October 1, 1966, five years after land 2km to the south was set aside for the airport.

Planted on a hill that forms one of the highest points in the Taupō urban area, the 35-hectare gardens are unique in that people can drive around them and park at various points to walk tracks and explore a huge array of native and exotic trees and other plants.

However, the latest five-yearly obstruction limitation survey (OLS), which is required by all airport authorities, shows the trees at the top of the gardens have intruded into the flight path, and must be topped or removed.

Airport manager Wayne Wootton said they were bound by the Civil Aviation Authority rules and had no choice in the matter.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

He said it was about safety because when pilots were flying in conditions where they relied on their instruments, they had to know where the obstacles were, which was why they had five-yearly surveys.

“If anything is protruding through, the plane has to land further down the runway.”

The land upon which the gardens were planted is owned by the Department of Conservation and managed by the Waipahihi Botanical Society.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Society chairman Graeme Robinson said trimming the trees went “against the grain” of what they were trying to do.

Waipahihi Botanical Society chairman Graeme Robinson stands amongst a copse of trees that will have to be trimmed or felled to ensure they do not encroach on the flight path to the airport. Photo / Dan Hutchinson
Waipahihi Botanical Society chairman Graeme Robinson stands amongst a copse of trees that will have to be trimmed or felled to ensure they do not encroach on the flight path to the airport. Photo / Dan Hutchinson

“One of our buzzwords is that it is an emerging forest and it is not going to emerge if they are decapitated.”

He said the trees were planted in the first 10-15 years of the gardens being established and the offending ones were a mixture of native beech, rimu and tōtara.

“Anybody who is interested in native tree species would find a priceless collection of tree species here.”

The 20-30 volunteer gardeners are mostly in their 70s and 80s. Those who planted the trees that need to be topped had likely passed away long ago, Robinson said.

“We manage it, enhance it and look after it and provide it to the community free of charge and live entirely on donations from like-minded people.”

Wootton said arborists contracted by the Taupō District Council had been out to assess the trees, of which there were about 10 that needed urgent attention. They would assess if the trees could be successfully trimmed or would have to come down.

He said it would need to be done this year before the trees grew any more.

Some of the trees have only reached 60 per cent of their full height but were already up to 15 metres tall. The tallest ones needed to lose about 12 metres of height to ensure they will not protrude until at least 2030.

Robinson said if the trees did have to be trimmed, how would it be done without damaging the surrounding area and who would pay for it?

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

They had already lost several large specimens as a result of Cyclone Gabrielle but fortunately there was “no mass damage”.

“We can deal with cyclones, but aeroplanes is something else.”

The arborists have yet to table their report to the Taupō Airport Authority Committee.

Several other trees outside the gardens also needed to come down or have already been felled.

To date, Wharewaka East Limited and Land Corp Farming Limited have provided costings to the airport committee to remove trees on their land and the Taupō District Council parks team has already taken down a tree on council land that was highlighted in the OLS survey.


Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.


Save

    Share this article

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

Rotorua Daily Post

CCTV of rider released after blind, deaf cancer survivor struck in hit-and-run

17 Jun 04:05 AM
Rotorua Daily Post

'Walk away enriched': How to celebrate Matariki in Rotorua

17 Jun 04:00 AM
Rotorua Daily Post

‘I’ve been put up on the shelf’: Temuera Morrison laments Star Wars limbo

17 Jun 03:16 AM

Jono and Ben brew up a tea-fuelled adventure in Sri Lanka

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

CCTV of rider released after blind, deaf cancer survivor struck in hit-and-run

CCTV of rider released after blind, deaf cancer survivor struck in hit-and-run

17 Jun 04:05 AM

A motorcyclist overtook a car and struck Paige Johnson on a pedestrian crossing.

'Walk away enriched': How to celebrate Matariki in Rotorua

'Walk away enriched': How to celebrate Matariki in Rotorua

17 Jun 04:00 AM
‘I’ve been put up on the shelf’: Temuera Morrison laments Star Wars limbo

‘I’ve been put up on the shelf’: Temuera Morrison laments Star Wars limbo

17 Jun 03:16 AM
Why Te Arawa's marae relay is becoming a community staple

Why Te Arawa's marae relay is becoming a community staple

17 Jun 01:24 AM
Help for those helping hardest-hit
sponsored

Help for those helping hardest-hit

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Rotorua Daily Post e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Rotorua Daily Post
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP