Wellington’s regional council has placed the winning bid on more than 1000 hectares of land, featuring unique wetlands and bordering on existing regional park in Eastbourne.
The 1366-hectare block is part farmland, part native bush, contains wetlands teeming with biodiversity and has access to the coast – plus, it borders two separate sections of East Harbour Regional Park, effectively connecting the two.
“From Wainuiomata saddle to the sea at Pencarrow, the entire eastern backdrop behind Wellington Harbour is now in public ownership or protected through covenants.”
The $1m donation which the council said had made the sale possible was gifted from the estate of John Marsden Nankervis, a prominent local mountaineer and conservationist.
The land’s future would go out for public consultation, and for now, the public would not be able to access the land – that would have to wait until the planning process was complete.
“We’ll have to work through our regional planning network process to determine where walking access goes, which areas are going to be closed to access because they need to be protected … and probably a significant amount of pest destruction work that needs to be undertaken,” Ponter said.
He said owning this block of land would make pest control much easier along that coastline, as the council could now access all parts of it, leaving no safe refuge for pests.
In time, he said, there would be infrastructure in place for day walks, and perhaps facilities for camping and mountain biking.