Bikes likely to use tracks in national parks

By ROSALEEN MacBRAYNE


Mountain bikers may soon be allowed into national parks.

The Conservation Authority has provisionally given the thumbs up to bicycles on selected tracks that are suitable for sharing with other park users.

Mountain Bike New Zealand is "delighted" with the decision, something the organisation has been campaigning for over the last eight years.

The move would enable a new group of mainly younger people to experience New Zealand's backcountry "in a wholesome and self-reliant manner", said Guy Wynn-Williams, chairman of Mountain Bike's land access committee.

But not everyone is happy. Nelson publisher Craig Potton is a strong opponent of any type of vehicle in national parks.

"It is anathema to me," said the keen tramper, climber and mountain biker.

"I think it is very sad and dangerous to open up walking tracks to machines in such sacrosanct places. It is inappropriate."

Mr Potton said there were thousands of kilometres of good mountain-bike areas, particularly in the South Island, without intruding on the huge sense of space and time that national parks provided.

He feared electric bicycles, quadbikes and four-wheel-drives could be next, brought in by "yuppies who have got the money but not the time [to walk]".

Of 1305 submissions received by the Conservation Authority, 1106 - including many cycling groups and tramping clubs - supported seasonal cycle access to national parks. Twenty-two were opposed.

Shaun Barnett, of Federated Mountain Clubs, which has about 10,000 affiliated members, said they had come to see mountain biking as a legitimate backcountry recreation, with people "moving under their own steam" as opposed to being motorised.

"We are not for open slather, either in national parks or elsewhere," he said.

Seasonal access for cyclists during quieter periods should minimise any potential conflict with other park users.

The authority considered the arguments for and against bikes while reviewing the general policy on national parks.

Mr Wynn-Williams said yesterday that the provisional policy change would allow for the Kahurangi Management Plan to be modified, permitting cyclists to ride the long-established Heaphy Track at the top of the South Island.

The Heaphy - "to mountain bikers what the Milford Track is to walkers" - had been the country's premier multi-day mountain bike ride before Kahurangi was changed from forest to national park.

"The possibility of being able to return it to this status in the near future is very exciting," he said.

Outside of national parks, the Department of Conservation already had guidelines for determining the suitability of tracks for shared use.

For example, seasonal access for cycles on the Queen Charlotte Track in the Marlborough Sounds was widely regarded as a great success, said Mr Wynn-Williams.

The track was open to cyclists and walkers for most of the year, but one section was closed to bikes in the peak tourist season. Last year, 30,000 people used the track, one-third of them bikers.

The general policy for national parks, formulated 20 years ago, gave no thought to bikes. The revised policy will go to the Minister of Conservation before adoption in December.

Cycle nation

Of about 110,000 bicycles sold in New Zealand each year, 85 per cent are mountain bikes.

About 14,000 of those are used off-road.

An estimated 200,000 adults ride mountain bikes.