By Guy Williams for the Otago Daily Times
Kevin Marlow with the group of stakeholders who signed an MOU late last year. Photo: ODT / Guy Williams
It will cost $40 for a car, truck or motorcycle to head in to a historic Otago goldmining ghost town from the end of this month - although Queenstown-Lakes residents can get an annual pass for $100.
After an 18-month project to keep the road into Macetown open, representatives of 10 organisations signed a memorandum of understanding late last year to finalise the system.
There will still be free, unrestricted access for walkers, mountain bikers and horse riders.
The narrow, 15km four-wheel-drive track from Arrowtown to the historic site was in danger of being closed after the Queenstown Lakes District Council decided it could no longer fund its maintenance and repairs.
After a stakeholders' meeting more than a year and a-half ago, Queenstown 4WD enthusiast Kevin Marlow was appointed by the Mahu Whenua Tracks Advisory Group to find a solution.
The solution is a gateway, about 3km from Arrowtown, which vehicle users can pass through with a permit bought online.
Marlow said the gate, which would be remotely monitored by CCTV, would be open until the system went live at the end of next month.
All funds generated would go directly to a dedicated account managed by the Arrowtown Charitable Trust, and used for a programme of regular track assessments, maintenance and improvements.
It was estimated $20,000 a year would be needed to run the programme and to build up a contingency fund for repairing major slips, Marlow said.
Without it, the road would deteriorate, become dangerous and ultimately have to close.
Despite being completed in 1884, the track had never been gazetted as a legal road.
However, it had now been fully surveyed and work on establishing easements across a complex patchwork of ownership was under way to ensure ongoing, legal public access.
Marlow said setting up the system was expected to cost $90,000, which had been funded with grants from Community Trust South, Central Lakes Trust and the New Zealand Four Wheel Drive Association.
The Mahu Whenua Tracks Advisory Group is made of of representatives from the Shotover 4WD Club, Queenstown Trails Trust, Arrowtown Village Association, Queenstown's council and pastoral lessee Soho Property Ltd.
* This story was originally published by the Otago Daily Times.
