New walkways

Press, 9 December 1981, Page 24

New walkways

New Zealanders keen on outdoor recreation are relatively fortunate. Access to the coasts and to most riverbanks and lake-shores is assured and the country has large areas of land which are publicly owned and so accessible to those who pursue outdoor activities. But the land open to the public for recreational use tends to be remote and mountainous. It can be used safely and with enjoyment by only a'small proportion of the population. What New Zealand lacks are the traditional Tights of way and footpaths across farmland and easy countryside which people in many countries in Europe and elsewhere enjoy. The 1975 Walkways Act was framed in part to make good this shortcoming. The aim was to provide legal and controlled access on foot to the countryside, with appropriate safeguards for landowners. Considerable progress has been made in reaching this aim. Last week-end a new walkway near Christchurch was opened, and another will be opened next week-end. The walkways around Quail Island and over Mount Herbert fit in with the emphasis which the walkways programme has been given — to develop mostly shorter walks which are not too difficult and are close to cities or towns. The aim has been to enable people to take exercise out of doors without having to travel long distances to, say, a national park. The aim has also been to provide walks easy enough to encourage people who might otherwise not think to go on a longer walk than down to the corner store to venture into'the countryside.

The opening of the two new walkways this month brings tb five the number of these easier tracks close to Christchurch. Throughout the country are more than 60 walkways which range in length from one to 66 kilometres, impressive as this may seem, some ardent advocates of the concept of a network of walkways from North Cape to the Bluff - declared to be the goal when the act was passed six years ago — may be disappointed that more progress has not been made. But the idea will only work if there is wholehearted cooperation among many different groups of people. This must take time to achieve. Particularly, landowners need to feel confident that the members of the public who will use any proposed walkway will respect farmers’ property and nor disturb stock or damage crops. As it becomes clearer to farmers that allowing a walkway to cross their land will not have any untoward consequences, the pace of development of the system should ouicken. The 50 years or so it is thought it will take to establish a nation-wide system of connected walkways may seem intolerably long to some who hoped, when the Walkways Act was passed, to be able to ramble the length and breadth of the country on walkways within a decade or so. But it is not something which can be hurried and the opening of two new walkways close to Christchurch, soon after the much longer St James Walkway near Lewis Pass was opened, is evidence that progress is being made.