The Banks Peninsula Track Company
The company is wholly locally owned and operated by the neighbouring families who live here. Your walk crosses nine different properties, and with twenty years experience, we pride ourselves on offering NZ's most unique private tramping track.
Seven shareholding properties form the Company with other land crossings held by them as concessions.
Onuku farm has been in the Hamilton family since the 1850's. Jeff Hamilton runs the Track walkers accommodation while his son Stephen runs the Onuku Farm Hostel, which you walk past at the start of your hike up the farm track on your first morning. |
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Eckhard Keppler has owned the Onuku Heights property for the last eight years. In addition to farming Perendale sheep, Hereford and Highland cattle, he operates a bed and breakfast business and also offers horse-trekking at Onuku Heights. |
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The Flea Bay farm has been in the Helps family since 1969. The farm extends over to the slopes of Akaroa Inner Harbour, and is farmed by two brothers from the Helps families. Francis and Shireen live in Flea Bay while Steve and Pam live in Akaroa. Both families service the cottage and maintain their section of the Track. |
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Opatuti farm is home for Mark and Sonia Armstrong. The Armstrong family have farmed at Stony Bay for many years. |
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Brian and Fay Narbey are owners of Renegat Farm which has been in the Narbey family since 1850. The farm stretches from Stony Bay headland to the Hinewai Reserve boundary. Brian has a bee keeping business based at Woodend north of Christchurch in addition to farming sheep and cattle at Long Bay (Otanerito). |
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For the past fifteen years, Otanerito Beach has been home for award winning New Zealand novelist Fiona Farrell, and her husband Doug Hood who runs the Track accommodation in the front of their house. |
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| Hugh Wilson, Manager and Trustee of Hinewai Reserve, is a botanist, writer, artist and cyclist. He lives on the reserve, at an altitude of 450m. He has written many books on New Zealand's natural history, including field guides to the plants of Mt Cook National Park and Stewart Island. He is currently working on a book about the plantlife of Banks Peninsula. |  |
Mafi Gehrig runs our Track office and will usually be dealing with your booking or any other enquiry about your trip. Originally from Switzerland, Mafi has lived at Onuku or Akaroa since the Track opened in 1989 and has been our office manager since the early 90's. Mafi also runs kayak trips from Onuku. |
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Tinker Fraser and Willem Portengen often help out in winter when Mafi Gehrig has a holiday break. Tinker and Willem have both walked the Banks Peninsula Track several times and are addicted to it! They are the owners of Double Dutch, a small but luxurious hostel in Okains Bay, twenty minutes from Akaroa. |
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| Paul Chandler has been driving our Track bus for the last four seasons. Paul formerly worked for DOC (Department of Conservation) in Arthurs Pass. He also runs an outer bays tours taxi business (including Christchurch and airport pick-ups for Track walkers), and recently took over the Wainui mail delivery business in Akaroa Harbour. |  |
| In the 2007-8 season Willie Rutherford joined the Track as a business advisor. Willie has a long history in business in the UK as founder and owner of the ATV accessories company 'Logic'. Willie has lived in Akaroa for the last decade and been involved in many local activities, notably the 'Akaroa Gallery' |  |
Mount Vernon Lodge provides the Track walkers' car park at the top of Rue Balguerie. Mt Vernon have been associated with the Track since it opened in 1989. The Lodge facilities have recently undergone a large scale upgrading to offer improved accommodation and venue facilities suitable for weddings and conferences as well as smaller get to gethers.
The Banks Peninsula Track holds concessions from the Department of Conservation for its walkers to pass through its' reserves (originally gifted to them by the Helps family) at the top of Flea Bay and also to pass through the penguin sanctuary reserve alongside Pohatu Marine Reserve which was purchased by DOC through the Native Forest Heritage Fund. This concession is the only one granted through the reserve limiting the total daily impact to just the (maximum) sixteen walkers on the Track
At the top of Otanerito valley, our walkers leave Hinewai by crossing a hundred metres of private land before joining the Purple Peak track for the final ascent to the saddle and descent to Akaroa. The Banks Peninsula Track are very grateful for the right for their walkers to cross Frank Miessen's land in return for an annual charge.
The Company decides overall policy, packages, season length, and negotiates contracts.
All decisions are still made by consensus. There is a very high level of individuality left to the different shareholders as to what they offer, and we believe this individuality contributes greatly to the wonderfully diverse nature of the walk.
Each shareholder is fully responsible for their own area (of either track, accommodation, or both), but for safety reasons an overall track inspection is carried out prior to each season with a track condition report issued to every shareholder.
We are all country people but very diverse - farmers, artists, writers, botanists, sailors, equestrians, fencers, apiarists, men and women, Kiwis of diverse ancestries, and more recent citizens. We are well aware of the need for an upper limit on the number of walkers to avoid negative impacts on both the environment and the experience.
The south eastern 'conservation' bays of Banks Peninsula.
Long before the Track opened in 1989, local landowners were involved in protecting and sustaining native vegetation and wildlife on their properties. Operating the Track has provided impetus for further conservation initiatives. Native forest has been fenced against farm animals, feral goats eliminated, possum populations reduced, and predators rigorously controlled in and around penguin colonies.
Penguin protection by the Helps and Armstrong families of Flea Bay and Stony Bay have in large measure ensured the survival of robust populations of white-flippered penguins, and smaller numbers of yellow-eyed penguins (Hoiho) here at the northern limit of their breeding range. The waters in and near Flea Bay/Pohatu are now a marine reserve, Banks Peninsula's first and so far only such reserve.
Hinewai Reserve, owned and managed by a private Charitable Trust but freely open to the public, is Banks Peninsula's largest conservation area at 1230 hectares. An interesting development is that when the Track opened, Hinewai was the smallest property involved, whereas it is now more than twice the size of the biggest farm. The Reserve ranges from the subalpine summit of Taraterehu/Stony Bay Peak, down to 20m above sea level near the coast, and embraces the catchments of Otanerito, Sleepy, and Stony Bays. Increasingly it links in with surrounding smaller reserves - some are Department of Conservation reserves, some Christchurch City Council, some are on private land protected in perpetuity by legal covenants. All the landowners along the Banks Peninsula Track have protected some (or in Hinewai's case, all) of their land in this way.
The Banks Peninsula Track guide booklet which you collect at the beginning of your walk was written by Hugh Wilson of Hinewai Reserve, and includes many interesting details about the history of the area, past vegetation and wildlife, as well as current plant and wildlife.