Fiordland Link Experience is a proposal to create a 3 stage transport link between Queenstown and Te Anau Downs in the south west of New Zealand. It includes a 43 kilometer monorail which will run through part of the World Heritage Area called Te Wahipounamu (Maori for Greenstone Waters).
In December 2011 the Department of Conservation (DOC) notified its intention to grant a 49 year concession for the monorail and a maintenance/cycle track to be constructed across 29.5 kilometers of wilderness that is managed by DOC. Before a final decision is made on the proposal there is a period for the public to make submissions to DOC’s decision-maker. Any person or organisation from anywhere in the world may send DOC a written objection to the proposal or write a submission on it. The deadline for submissions is 19 March 2012.
Building a monorail and maintenance/cycle track would have a significant and long-lasting impact on the land and the local community. It is a major decision and should only be made with full consideration of all relevant information by as many people as possible, particularly those who are likely to be affected now or in the future and those who simply love this area for its intrinsic value.
This website aims to provide factual information about the proposal and its potential impact for people and organisations who are interested to know more or are considering making a submission to DOC. If you have expertise or local knowledge about the (positive or negative) impact the monorail could have you are welcome to contribute to the website. Please get in touch to discuss what you can offer.
You are welcome to express personal opinions through the comment sections in each page. If you would like to write a blog post expressing your point of view please let us know. We are also happy to post relevant videos, photos, expert information, local commentary etc – anything that helps people be clear about what they want for the future of this area, the local communities and our visitors from all over the world.
How come you do not have your web site viewable in mobile format? cant view anything in my iPad.
I think one of your ads caused my web browser to resize, you may well need to place that on your blacklist.
Good Stuff, do you currently have a myspace profile?
Lu Tyree
The above is NOT correct… & altho you are entitiled to your opinions– NZ in the ’80′s had plenty of alternative angles, you obviously were not exposed to any of that!!!!
The lights were NOT closed (as you put it)
We are NOT Australia nor Canada. As an ex- Ozzy, now over 30 yrs living in the deep south, I too have seen plenty of changes in this country & in Australia. I have travelled exstensively in both…
I was fortunate to live on the Paradise road -living & working the land organically, long before Queenstown & Glenorchy have had the dramatic changes. We may have been a small pocket then but managed to connect with SO many like mindedness… That was 30 years ago..& I’m still doing exactly the same lifestyle in another place..
One should never compare this small diverse country to much larger in population & more economically driven countries.
Who wants to see Milford Sound & the surrounding areas with more changes & with more people?
I don’t….
EREWHON
I came to New Zealand in the 1980s for the first time – it was almost closed, last one turned the lights out and it was very conservative. In the meantime I have witnessed, like many others, the huge developments in this country I have called home for longer than my original homeland. I don’t think we ever need to go back to the awful coffee, the bad food and even worse beer and wine. But we did have pristine forests and the possums hadn’t made the kind of impression they have since then. And we didn’t have didymo or the abundance of lupins, gorse, ragwort or thistles we tolerate today and say ‘how pretty’.
What is clear is that NZ can’t live off fresh air alone. We have a set of acts that allow for some form of democratic (and non-corrupt?!?) process of deciding the future of some of the things that we have to consider developing to be able to maintain our 1st world life style. We need revenue from tourism, not freedome campers shitting in the bush and on the lake shores.
We are not Canada where there are catepillar snow plows on all the glaciers, we have only 3-4 little choppers flying across the airspace at any one time (and not on many days of the year). We have some very minimal, low impact bottle necks in tourism. Fiordland is not one of them. Milford Road and Milford Sound WERE potentially one – but that was 15 years ago. Hardly any more since the market has slowed right down.
We have to be prepared for the future of tourism when things pick up again – and more camper vans on the road (or coaches through tunnels heaven forbid) are not the way of the future.
The Monorail is a SMALL corridor through a HUGE tract of land. It will bring people to the Fiordland region, so Te Anau will better flourish, consolidate itself as a transport hub. Encourage some more hotels that we will desperately need. Put another boat or two on that 350sqkm lake we have out there. And hopefully run those darned road maggot campervans off the road!
Give the Monorail I chance I say – and savour the beauty of the outback from the silence of a trip like you can do with Kuranda’s Skyrail. It is AWESOME.
Thanks, Veronica from Arizona for your input. I think I know what I am talking about – I am a tour director and have been in the thick of all the developments in tourism.
Lu, Rotorua but ex South Island.
Thank you Veronica. It is really good to hear from people overseas what they most value about New Zealand. We often do not see that so clearly from here, because we are so busy providing service to our visitors! It’s nice to feel that halo rippling out from New Zealand, touching people in so many different places:-) Let’s make it stronger.
You are welcome and thank you so much for saying that, Snowdon Kiwi , yes, together we can make it stronger.
All the best wishes and Sunny blessings from Arizona.
I love New Zealand, especially the south island. It is the purest of the nature, untouched by a human ignorance ( no war ever there ) and to me it seems to be the purest place on Earth where people can enjoy nature far away from the rest of the modern day stressful drama. If we are ever to discover what is left of a pure human potential, we better preserve the nature of that which is still untouched. If we don’t manage to preserve the Essence of untouched nature, how can we ever preserve and develop human essential God given Talents that are still hidden in us and are waiting to be developed and explored?!! Human brains are so far only used by max. 20 %. How far a human potential can really go when reaching into the hidden potential while looking for life sustainable solutions?
I first came to New Zealand in 1999 and it was a very remarkable factor in my spiritual – self realization process. To experience something so pure and untouched it delivers valuable information for the human spirit . In overcoming of the problems of a modern,stressful civilization and finding more natural solutions, human spirit is the most valuable transformation asset we still have.
From that standpoint of view, this forest could bring so much more value back to New Zealand by being untouched than being violated for some fast paced commercial and monetary gains. I often come across people from all over the world who say they feel a deep need to travel to New Zealand and want, at least once in their lifetime, experience it. I wonder why that quest doesn’t happen so often for the other places on the Earth? People are a part of nature and they might just feel pure , untouched and natural – something that stands out from the rest of the pretty much corrupted world?! New Zealand has its ‘Halo’ and people can feel it and we all might need it more and more in those daring times.
Can we find a better solutions for transportation needs ? Like precisely structured time and better organized air line connections for those who live and travel there??! What would cost us to slow down a bit in order to pay respect to our Mother Nature? Life it is all about priorities and when we prioritize our responsibilities towards Nature, not our selfishness – and we do so not emotionally , but consciously – than I know for sure that we can become responsible enough to find environmental , natural win -win solution that will not robe us , but just opposite , enrich us.
Maybe New Zealand is just that special place where people ( residents and also tourist ) have to slow down and obey the Natural priorities before rushing into fast pace lifestyle solutions. After all, aren’t we a part of that same Nature ? Isn’t about time for us to surrender to That Nature?
Maybe that very Nature might just pay us back in some other ways we can’t even not imagine and understand, yet. If you are someone who can inform those who are decisions making people in this matter, please help. Just in case if that forest might be playing an important role for the physical, emotional and even spiritual health of the global community.
Thank you! Veronica, Arizona