Alan Creak: So much for open country

I grew up in England, where we lived in Scholes, a village in mainly agricultural country on the edge of Leeds. Despite the closeness of the city, my environment was of farms, lanes, footpaths, streams, fields, animals and crops.

As I grew older I became fond of country walks. As I grew older still, the walks grew too, and half-day and day walks became a valued part of my life.

Most of these walks were on footpaths across farmland. I naturally grew up knowing the rules. They were the obvious ones, such as not destroying things, not interfering with the farm activities or property, and so on. They added up to behaving responsibly.

Most other people understood that too. There were a few idiots - but there always are.

We came to New Zealand in 1973. It was an exciting prospect. I was aware that it was a beautiful country with a strong bias towards the outdoor life; obviously the footpaths would be even better than those in England.

Then we arrived. The country was beautiful beyond my imaginings and the outdoors was highly regarded - but there were essentially no footpaths.

Instead, there were notices of a sort that I'd rarely seen before; they didn't quite say "anyone who steps off the road will be shot", but the message was there.

It was a nasty shock. There were a few parks, but most of the countryside was out of bounds.

And it still is. We drive through kilometres of glorious countryside with world-beating views to get to somewhere we're permitted to walk - in a forest, where we can't see anything but trees. I like trees, but I like views as well.

For example, in the past few months we have seen in newspapers photographs of the countryside behind Waiwera. It is beautiful but it is inaccessible. The photographs were there because it will shortly be destroyed to build a motorway.

Some of the Auckland Regional parks give us views, but the Waitakere park, with the biggest collection of walks, is mostly forest. North Shore City does its best, but most of its walks are in bush reserves, or public parks that aren't very country.

There is talk of opening access to waterways. The farmers are not pleased. I'm not particularly concerned about getting to waterways but I am about the world-beating views that I glimpse from the road, but would like to see better from the top of a hill.

Farmers claim the proposal will open their properties to unrestricted access, letting in criminals. Surely anyone with criminal intent is unlikely to worry about the legality of access. The only people being kept out are law-abiding people like me. Indeed we read regularly of theft, vandalism, and murder on remote farms.

We also read that there were no witnesses. Perhaps if farmers were less diligent in keeping people away, there might be more witnesses.

Farmers claim that most of them are happy to let people on to their land if they ask nicely, which misses the point entirely. Unless I know a path is there and available, I'm not likely to plan to go there.

Anyway, if I do see a pretty hill I'd like to climb when I'm driving through the countryside far away from home, how do I find who I have to ask? By the time I've found the right place, it's time to go home.

Is it really true that the proportion of vandals in New Zealand is so much higher than it is in England? It certainly wasn't true in 1973, when the New Zealand countryside was, if anything, even more closed than it is now. If it's true now, then we have problems that are a lot bigger than footpaths.

The network of footpaths in England is a treasure, which grew over centuries, and is built into enough English law to be fairly protected. It is true that not everyone who uses the paths observes the rules as carefully as I, and most other people, do, and there is some misbehaviour.

A lot of farmers might be happy to get rid of the paths but they can't, so they manage. Both sides have to compromise, so they do.

We've been back to England. It is wonderful, in that comparatively highly industrialised and overpopulated country, to be able to get into the countryside far more easily than in New Zealand. And almost all of the access is to farmland.

There's a story that comes in several slightly different versions, but they all end with the punchline "I went to New Zealand, but it was closed". It still is.

* Alan Creak lives in Devonport but would like to walk in the country.