8. Activities requiring specific authorisation
8.2 Recreation concessions
8.2.3 Water taxi activity
(refer to the Glossary for the definition of a ‘water taxi’)
Water taxi activity covers the following being dropped off onto, or picked up from, the reserve:
(i) People (water taxi passengers);
(ii) Non-motorised watercraft; and/or
(iii) Other hire equipment, goods and materials (such as back-packs and other luggage, food and other supplies, camping equipment, building equipment and other items).
This activity does not include charter clients that enter the reserve under charter boat activity or guests associated with vessels servicing floating accommodation activity.
Each ‘unit’ for water taxi activity consists of the following person-movements and/ or non-motorised watercraft-movements:
Person-movement
(a) A water taxi passenger being dropped off onto the reserve; or (b) A water taxi passenger being picked up from the reserve.
Non-motorised watercraft-movement
(a) A non-motorised watercraft being dropped off onto the reserve; or (b) A non-motorised watercraft being picked up from the reserve.
For water taxi activity there are two types of water taxi passengers and two types of non-motorised watercraft:
Water taxi passenger types
(i) Public visitors – these water taxi passengers make up the majority of person movements on the reserve. They may be visitors travelling by themselves or as part of a commercially guided group (including the guides who accompany their clients onto the reserve) who may visit or stay overnight in the adjacent national park; and they may be day visitors to commercial businesses on private land (for example, visitors going to Awaroa Lodge for lunch).
(ii) Private landowners (and their guests) – these water taxi passengers are people accessing private property adjacent to the reserve (this includes: the trustees of the Moncrieff Private Scenic Reserve; the holders of the lifetime occupancy agreements for the baches on national park land at Tinline, Bark Bay/Wairima and Uarau Point; and the occupier of the bach on unformed legal road at Stilwell Bay).
Non-motorised watercraft types
(i) Guided non-motorised watercraft – non-motorised watercraft associated with water-based commercially guided activity.
(ii) Freedom/Private non-motorised watercraft – freedom-hired (see section 8.2.8
‘Freedom waterbased commercial activity’) and privately owned non-motorised watercraft.
The maximum levels of person-movements and non-motorised watercraft-movements for water taxi activity that should be allowed on the reserve are set out in Table 2 (see Appendix 7 for an explanation of the processes and principles in setting these levels of activity):
8. Activities requiring specific authorisation 79 TABLE 2
Maximum levels of water taxi activity
Movement type
Water taxi passenger/
non-motorised watercraft type
Peak period (1 Nov-30 April)
Off-peak period (1 May-31 Oct) Total maximum Total
maximum
Monthly maximum
Daily maximum
Person movements
Public visitors 222,440 55,610 2,929 50,000
Private landowners No limit No limit No limit No limit
Non- motorised watercraft movements
Guided non-motorised watercraft
N/A N/A 560 560 per day
Freedom/Private non- motorised watercraft
N/A N/A 140 140 per day
Because the ‘Public Visitors’ contribute to the bulk of water taxi activity, monthly maximum levels have been set for these person-movements during the peak period to ensure that the water taxi activity is spread out over those six months. There are no limits on the amount of goods transportation undertaken (e.g. back-packs, food supplies, camping equipment).
Concessionaires should be required to record the number of ‘Private Landowners’
transported by water taxi, as well as the locations they are being transported to. This information is required to monitor the total person-movements by concessionaires, and to prevent abuse of the provisions in this management plan that allow unlimited numbers of private landowners and their guests to be transported into or out of the reserve.
The locations where water taxi activity may occur, and more detailed conditions of use, are set out in the place sections (see Table 5, pages 121-123 and Table 6, pages 132-135).
This includes limits on the number of person movements (‘Public Visitors’) that may occur at each Coastal Access Point and at some other sites. At Torrent Bay/Rakauroa the allocation of water taxi activity should occur when this plan is approved. At the other locations the Administration Committee will determine how and when water taxi activity should be allocated based on monitoring at each of the sites. A decision to allocate will depend on: when, where and how the operators choose to distribute their clients; the effects of these visitors on the reserve and on the experiences of other visitors; and the effects on and the capacity of the infrastructure on the adjacent land.
As a result, the allocation of water taxi activity may be required at all, some or maybe none of the sites.
The overall limits on water taxi activity, as set out in Table 2 above, are considered to be acceptable in terms of potential adverse effects on: the values of the reserve, the adjacent national park, and private land; and the experiences of all visitors and private
landowners. Factors that can influence the ability of water taxi operators to utilise their limits fully include weather and sea conditions. If future monitoring shows adverse effects are occurring then the maximum level of activity may need to be reduced, or further controls introduced, such as when water taxi activity may occur (see section 8.2.18 ‘Monitoring’).