Taupo head-scratching as iwi reach for the sky

By RENEE KIRIONA


Taupo's Floatplane owner Allen Campbell asks the question that has puzzled Taupo all day.

"How can they own the air?"

In this tourist town, people are coming to grips with the news that Ngati Tuwharetoa want to charge for use of the space above New Zealand's largest lake.

The tribe believes an agreement that gave it ownership of the Taupo lakebed and the beds of tributaries and streams entitles the Tuwharetoa Maori Trust Board to charge a licence fee to commercial operators.

That could affect tourist companies like Mr Campbell's Taupo's Floatplane.

He told the Herald yesterday: "No one - not even the Crown - should own the air. For me, it's just one of those things that God put here for all of us to enjoy. They're pushing the boundaries, if you ask me."

Darryn Clutchy, site manager at Taupo Bungy, said: "I have my own personal views about it but at the end of the day if we don't have airspace then we don't have a business."

Residents of Taupo, which attracts about 750,000 visitors a year, were perplexed by the claim, which is to be discussed by the Crown and trust board next week.

"I find it very difficult to understand how the air can be owned," said resident Craig Nicholas. "I don't dispute Tuwharetoa owning the lakebed, but the air?"

Tuwharetoa descendant Betty Rameka-Wynyard was not aware that people could be charged for using the air. "But if the Government has given it to Tuwharetoa then they should be allowed to do what they want with it."