Waikato pylon scheme alarms tourist operators

Tourist operators say a Transpower plan to march pylons across the central North Island will blight the countryside.

Tourism Waikato chief executive John Rasmussen raised the issue of Transpower's proposed 400kV line from Whakamaru to Otahuhu at yesterday's Tourism Waikato board meeting.

One of the proposed routes would see pylons striding along the edge of Matamata's Hobbiton, made famous by The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy and which attracted 51,000 people to the area last year.

The proposed routes could also see pylons run alongside the Maungatautari Ecological Island, a conservation haven run by a charitable trust, and the new Waikato River Walkway near Arapuni.

Mr Rasmussen said the prospect was "awful".

"I'm prepared to live with what we have but I think if at all possible we should avoid the visual pollution of very high pylons marching across the beautiful green countryside."

While the ecological island and the walkway were relatively new additions to tourism attractions in Waikato, they would eventually be big drawcards, he said.

"They will be vital to our tourism future, so if this impacts them it will be very concerning."

Ali Van der Heyden, a trustee on the South Waikato Economic Development Trust, has spent hundreds of volunteer hours helping to develop the Waikato River Walkway.

She described the proposal to run pylons across part of the walkway as devastating.

One of the two proposed routes for the pylons crosses the section of walkway which would stretch from the Arapuni Village to Horohoro.

"We're trying to build a trail that opens up a treasure. Why will people want to walk it under 70m pylons?

"Is that what tourism in New Zealand is supposed to be about?"