I live in Ashhurst (15 minutes from Opawe Road) so I've been following this with interest.
I ended up contacting the council because I had some questions after reading the
Stuff article and the
Manawatu Council website. The council were good to deal with.
The important thing is that the proposed easement will mean access will continue. I think the current landowner's motives seem pretty genuine in wanting to make the route clear and avoid people wandering over his property.
My only concern is whether an "easement in gross" has the same protections from being closed by subsequent landowners as a "paper road". I've googled it but can't get my head around it. Does anyone actually know how these things work? I'd like to know before I make a submission.
I have to say I've always found landowners around here pretty approachable. In the last month I've asked two farmers for permission to go across their land for fishing and they were both really friendly and had no problems with it. I've had a few refusals when it came to shooting/hunting but usually for a good reason but a lot of the time the farmers were pretty keen hunters themselves and were OK with it or suggested who else to ask.