'Looming access crisis' threatens risky outdoor activities, climbers warn

Risky outdoor activities that are part of the Kiwi way of life may be closed down by new health and safety laws, climbers are warning.

The NZ Alpine Club has raised the alarm as local councils review access to cliffs used by rock climbers at Mt Maunganui and near Wellington and Queenstown.

Surprisingly, the issue has come to a head in the middle of Auckland, where Auckland Grammar School has temporarily closed access to the cliffs of the old Mt Eden quarry which have been used by climbers for the past 50 years to learn rock climbing.

Headmaster Tim O'Connor said the school board acted after receiving legal advice two weeks ago on the new Health and Safety at Work Act passed in 2015.

"We are going to have to further investigate areas of the rock, probably get geotechnical specialists in to give us their expert opinion on aspects of the rock wall and whether or not there needs to be a response from the school," he said.

"We need to look at things like the anchor points in the walls and whether they should or should not be certified by an appropriately qualified person, and the continued risk of any rock fall from the rock wall, and then at the maintenance requirements, the regularity of checking, and who are the appropriate personnel with the appropriate expertise."

The Alpine Club has managed access to the walls through an Auckland Climber website, where more than 1000 people have registered to climb on the quarry faces.

But O'Connor said the school would now have to take direct responsibility under the new law as a "person conducting a business or undertaking" (PCBU).

"There are a number of things we would need to work through with the NZ Alpine Club," he said.

"We want to put an action plan together, take that back to the board, test that in a legal environment, and see if we can get things operating as soon as possible. It could be weeks or months, not years."

NZ Alpine Club president-elect John Palmer, who met with O'Connor last week, said climbers faced "a looming access crisis" nationwide.

"I genuinely feel like, not just through the health and safety law, but population growth and changing attitudes to the value of recreation generally are putting these kinds of activities under pressure," he said.

A Tauranga City Council spokeswoman confirmed that access to cliffs used by climbers on Mt Maunganui is being reviewed.

"We are investigating that issue - but no solutions as of yet," she said.

The review has not led to closing any cliff faces yet, although the track around the base of the Mount has been closed temporarily because of unstable ground.

Palmer said local councils were also reviewing access to rock climbing sites at Titahi Bay near Wellington and near Queenstown.

He said the new law included an exception for farmers, stating that they were only responsible for health and safety in parts of the farm that were being worked.

"But that has made the problem worse for other types of land - council-managed land or schools," he said.

"A lawyer would say because Parliament has taken the trouble to specify that this is how it works in relation to farms, does it mean it doesn't work like that in every other piece of land that is not specified?"

A Worksafe spokeswoman referred the Herald to its website which says a PCBU is responsible for the health and safety of its workers and of "other people at risk from its work including customers, visitors, or the general public".