Google Maps mix-up leaves Waikato farmer troubled as confused travellers continually wind up at his dairy sheds

Google Maps has been directing travellers on to a Waikato farmer's land. Photo / AP

A Google Maps blunder has led flummoxed travellers across a Waikato farmer’s private land and past his dairy shed in their attempts to find a nearby lake.

Many of the travellers have gone through closed gates to access the property.

Dairy farmer Michael Lumsden said he and his family had come across several wanderers lost on his property, some even opening gates at the bequest of Google’s mapping service.

Lumsden said he was not angry at the lost travellers, but concerned over who would be the responsible party should an incident happen on his property.

The farm roads were built for a single vehicle, and featured rises potentially impeding oncoming visibility and treacherous terrain, especially in winter.

“At some point, it’s going to get difficult. If stock damage a car on our property, where do the insurance companies stand? Where do we stand?” he said.

The mapping service leads travellers off State Highway 1 on to the Lumsden farm property.

Those Lumsden and his family had spoken to were usually very apologetic, though Lumsden had encountered the odd language barrier with “very lost” travellers attempting to find a nearby lake.

“My son has talked with a number of people too, and we just quietly deal with it. You can’t be aggressive, it’s anyone who’s made a genuine mistake, or been encouraged to make a mistake by Google.”

Lumsden said he and members of his family had contacted the Ministry of Transport but were told it was an issue to take up with Google.

After contacting the tech giant itself, Lumsden said he had received no response.

“The ministry failed to acknowledge the problem, Google failed to acknowledge the problem, the question I have is who has gone to being responsible in the event of an issue with livestock or a car sliding or something else?”

Lumsden said he knew of several other farmers who were facing the same issue.

On Waitangi Day, police were called to an altercation after a farmer confronted several drivers travelling across his property after Google Maps showed the farm tracks as a through road, even though it had never been open to the public.

A Google spokesperson told the Herald that the company used a variety of sources to get the most accurate and up-to-date information on the map.

“But the world changes at a rapid pace - and sometimes errors happen,” they said.

“When we see a problem, we work to address them as quickly as we can, and empower our community to help us by submitting corrections via the ‘Report a problem’ tool.”

The spokesperson confirmed a team had looked into the issue to make the necessary changes.