KEY POINTS:
Images of the high country are embedded in our national psyche - a romantic merging of Southern Man farmers as stoic as their sheep, autumn-toned tussock and snow-capped peaks reflected in ice-blue lakes.
The blended image is cast in stone, which is part of the problem. Few northerners ever go to the South Island high country. Instead, they experience it through the Speights ads, Grahame Sydney landscapes and The Lord of the Rings backdrops.
Our sense of connection is part nation-building and partly because it's ours: much of the high country is in conservation estate and over 2 million hectares of grazing land is owned by the Crown in pastoral leases.
The leases, east of the main divide and stretching from central Southland to northern Marlborough, cover 10 per cent of New Zealand's land area.
But the past 10 years have brought changes which threaten to scuttle our assumptions of ownership and alter the high country landscape forever.
Since 1998, 10 per cent of the pastoral lease area has been privatised under the innocuously titled Tenure Review process. Almost as much land again has gone into conservation estate in exchange deals negotiated between leaseholders and government departments.
Some of the 68 runholders who have secured freehold title have promptly turned around and subdivided - making millions after years of paying peppercorn per hectare rentals on their vast runs. Under tenure review, many have also been paid compensation for allowing the Government to take back parts of their leases for conservation.
By mid-year, the Government had paid runholders a net $27.5 million under tenure review (including $9 million this year) despite being the underlying landowner.
The next 10 years could see the pace of change go up a gear - a further 93 runholders have entered negotiations - meaning more than half of the 303 pastoral lease blocks are in for the biggest upheavals in their 150-year history.
The process stems from concern about the vulnerability of the highest high country to continued grazing, while farmers who've endured the steady decline in sheep farming's profitability see freeholding as the chance to diversify.
Environmentalists who initially saw tenure review as the key to boosting the conservation estate are dismayed. Conversions to vineyards and lifestyle blocks in Otago and dairying and subdivision in the Mackenzie basin are eroding the tussock grasslands more dramatically than decades of summer grazing on fragile alpine plateaus, they claim. The farmers say the tussock has never been in better shape.
Those seeking recreational access - to hunt, fish or admire the wildlife and scenery - are also agitating. The pastoral leases are attractive to foreign investors who value seclusion - and some have shut off public access.
And subdivision for vineyards, housing or dairying conversions brings further pressure. Otago power company Pioneer Generation, which bought the Ben Nevis and Craigroy leases in the 1990s, wants to dam the Nevis River, a prized brown trout fishery, and flood the scenic Nevis valley for a power station. In the Mackenzie basin, more intensive land use is fuelling demand for water.
The extent of change was summed up by landscape planner Di Lucas: "The change from semi-natural cover to vividly green square or round paddocks is a massive landscape change. The character of the semi-arid landscapes is being lost."
But it is farmers who are complaining loudest right now. Government moves to introduce market rents have dragged the always rocky relationship to a new low. At a Land Valuation Tribunal hearing which began in Dunedin this week, the leaseholder of Minaret Station, overlooking Lake Wanaka, is challenging the basis of the new rents. The test case is backed by the High Country Accord, representing station lessees.
Some farmers see the rents review as a conspiracy to force them into tenure review and lock-up even more productive land in conservation estate.
Accord chairman Donald Aubrey works the 13,600 ha Ben McLeod Station in the mid-Canterbury high country. He says the forecast rent rise - from less than $10,000 a year to more than $70,000 - far exceeds his net income. "How am I going to pay for it? I simply couldn't. I expect to get arrested one day I guess."
The Government says the steep rent rises reflect soaring land values; farmers say the Government is making them pay for the scenery. Land Information Minister David Parker says he is following the 1948 Land Act's requirement that leaseholders pay 2 per cent of assessed land value - and in some cases proper rent wasn't being charged.
Parker is offering discounted rents to runholders who allow public access, protect biodiversity and cultural heritage or undertake erosion control.
Farmers say this is blackmail and they already provide these services. None have approached the Crown.
The valuations underpinning rents will in turn affect future tenure review deals - which to date have favoured runholders more than taxpayers in financial terms. In 2006, a visiting American academic blew the whistle on a number of deals which appeared to heavily favour the lessee.
She revealed settlements such as Glendhu Station, where the runholder was paid a net $5000 for giving up grazing rights to 280 ha and gained freehold title to nearly 3000 ha overlooking Lake Wanaka. The owner has plans for a $10 million golf course and villas catering for 200 people.
Brower says our ideas about the high country - and a Lockean view that those who've tamed this land are somehow entitled to it - have helped destroy it. "Images, ideas and myths about property and place collectively formed a frame that overrode the law."
She supports environmentalists who argue that valuations should reflect potential future uses of the land, rather than grazing productivity.
Even Parker concedes dissatisfaction with the Crown's share in deals to date. "Has the split of values between the lessor and the lessee become a bit distorted? Perhaps. I think the way to redress that is through the rental review we are engaged in."
Parker moved last year to ensure all deals come past his desk, ending 10 years of bureaucratic control.
Farmers are unabashed about their right to take advantage of soaring demand for rural land with outstanding scenery and privacy. "The desire for land in the high country is not dissimilar to other areas," says Donald Aubrey.
"To suggest that the value farmers should receive as a result of subdivision should be artifically adjusted doesn't fit with the market model."
The settlements also recognise runholders' husbandry of the ecologically fragile stations, capital improvements made and the restrictive nature of the leases, he says.
"There needs to be recognition of the value of the rights they hold as lessees and compensation for the uplifting of those rights."
While the Southern Man image is of a taciturn and unemotional breed, high country farmers play good violin. So do their adversaries - environmentalists invoke images of iconic landscapes lost forever; farmers of generations of struggle against the elements.
Aubrey stesses that many runholders are not interested in tenure review and not everyone who gains freehold title intends to subdivide. He and his family remained committed to grazing sheep on Ben McLeod in the upper-Rangitata. "We're passionate about this area but we're also passionate about the role of stewardship and that's why we're angry with the Crown coming in like a Johnny-come-lately demanding rent for the view."
Improving fine wool prices promise better times for high country farmers. But, warns Aubrey: "If you rent pastoral lessees to death, change will accelerate."
The runholders are preparing for battle on another front: a court case to clarify the lessees' right to deny access to their properties.
Fish and Game NZ is seeking a High Court declaration after Dr Brower and New South Wales academic John Page challenged the legal basis of leaseholders' claims to exclusive possession. Fish and Game's Niall Watson says access to pastoral stations is diminishing as foreign buyers take over leases.
Aubrey says most farmers grant access to those who ask. "Should Fish and Game succeed, the high country will quickly revert to something akin to the Wild West of old.
"We will see firearms discharged at any time of the day or night where people are both living and working. It will be nigh on impossible to operate a farm in those circumstances."
Much hinges on questions Brower has raised about who owns the high country - the lessees, or the Crown on behalf of all New Zealanders.
Christchurch lawyer and High Country Accord member Kit Mouat says the Government gave up its rights in 1948 when it issued perpetual leases.
"This is alienated land. It's not Crown land, it's not public land like Ann Brower's trying to tell everyone.
"If the Crown wants to take this land then it is into a compensation situation where it has to buy the lessee out."
He says local bodies and other agencies have sufficient powers to control subdivision and land use.
"Let's trust the local bodies to get it right."
Rampant subdivision around Lake Wanaka and Queenstown indicates they can't be trusted, say environmental guardians.
"District councils are not particularly good at protecting landscapes," says Forest and Bird southern regional officer Sue Maturin.
In Central Otago, consent is not needed to clear vegetation on freeholded pastoral leases while the Waitaki District Council is considering a similar exemption, she says.
In the Mackenzie basin, district council moves to confine subdivision to clusters are opposed by farmers; one station owner saying the proposed plan change 13 would "lock up the Mackenzie like a museum piece." A 49-section subdivision is planned on his station, Pukaki Downs, freeholded in 1997.
Maturin says tenure review has brought some good outcomes, with the creation of eight high country parks and expansion of others.
"But in some situations we don't believe the conservation outcomes have been in the public interest. Some areas would have been better left as pastoral leases."
Forest and Bird wants more focus on protecting landscape and lower-altitude areas with high conservation values.
Linz's administration of remaining pastoral leases must also improve, says Maturin. Burning, vegetation clearance and track building approved by Linz had left some dramatic scars on the landscape.
Landscape planner Di Lucas says when the stations were under Crown ownership with restrictive leases, district councils didn't have to worry about landscape protection and subdivision rules. Now they must play catch-up.
Maturin and Lucas agree it's a matter of Crown agencies and local bodies being vigilant and using their statutory powers.
Unless they do, says Maturin, "we won't have those famous Southern Man images on hillsides."
"We'll have men drinking pinot noir instead."
STATION BY STATION
Tenure review settlements highlighted by Dr Ann Brower include:
Ben Avon
East of Lake Hawea. 3365ha privatised, 4800ha (59 per cent) protected. The runholder received a net $1.2 million. And 202ha is now for sale on the Sotheby's website for $4.2 million.
Glendhu Station
Lake Wanaka. Runholder received $5000 and freehold title to nearly 3000ha "on the shores or within sight of Lake Wanaka". Crown gained 280ha (9 per cent). Covenant restricts development on 568ha of freeholded land. New owner has announced plans to develop a $10 million golf course and villas catering for 200 people.
Richmond Station
Lake Tekapo. Runholder received a net $325,000 and gained freehold title to 5824ha including 9km of lake frontage and wetlands of high ecological value. Crown gained 3743ha (40 per cent) for conservation estate. Owner has no immediate development plans.
Wyuna Station
Lake Wakatipu. 8400ha added to conservation estate; 2500ha freeholded. The runholder paid the Crown $630,000. Prices on 33 subdivision sites start at $1.75 million for 2ha lots.
Hillend Station
South of Lake Wanaka. 2659ha privatised; 991ha protected as public conservation land. 717ha of freeholded land under covenant. Crown received a net $120,000. The new owner sold 2665ha to developer Infinity Investment Group, which gained resource consent to build 53 houses on 120ha.
Closeburn Station
Lake Wakatipu. 930ha privatised in 1994 for $158,000; 1787ha passed into public conservation land. About 17 subdivisions were created, selling for about $2 million each.
Dingleburn
Lake Hawea.Runholder obtained freehold to 7000ha with lake frontage and was paid a net $5.6 million, giving up 18,000ha for conservation. New owner is seeking resource consent to subdivide.
Mesopotamia Station
Upper Rangitata River. Runholders the Prouting family were paid $4.6 million and gained freehold to 5000ha of 26,000ha station. The Proutings received a 30-year hunting and tourism concession over the 21,000ha added to conservation estate. Covenants protect 1500ha of freeholded land.
REMOTE PARKS
For the Crown, a major benefit of Tenure Review has been to develop a network of South Island high country parks. Land "resumed" through tenure review negotiations and outright purchases under the DoC-administered Nature Heritage Fund have added hundreds of thousands of hectares to conservation estate in the last 10 years.
The country's largest pastoral lease, St James Station, became the latest straight purchase last week, for $40 million.
Conservation parks host a wider range of activities than national parks, with recreational activities such as hunting, fishing, skiing, climbing and mountain biking taking place against stunning scenery.
In the Ashburton lakes area, Hakatere Conservation Park also was formed by a combination of outright purchases and tenure review. It will grow by 17,000ha with the addition of land from the Mt Potts (9266ha) and Redcliffe (7809ha) stations.
In May, DoC announced plans for a 94,000ha park including most of the Two Thumb Range, combining ex-pastoral lease land from Mesopotamia Station and the Clayton and Mt Dobson conservation areas.
Other additions to conservation parks through either tenure review or the Nature Heritage Fund in the last 10 years include:
* 7861ha Twinburn Station between St Bathans and Omarama (Nature Heritage Fund, $4.8 million).
* 8000ha of Pukaki Downs Station.
* Part of Wyuna Station, near Glenorchy, added to the Whakaari Conservation Area.
* The 9000ha Michael Peak Station in Central Otago (Nature Heritage Fund, $8 million).
* Birchwood Station near Lake Hawea. (Nature Heritage Fund, $10 million).
* Mt Potts Station: 9266ha to become conservation land with 1196ha freeholded.
* Mesopotamia Station: 21,000ha to form part of proposed Two Thumb Range conservation park.
