Wye Creek - Help Protect a Remote Scenic Gem

A remote alpine valley tucked in behind Queenstown’s world famous Remarkables mountain range is under threat from proposals to develop a fully catered 40 bed luxury lodge. The proposal to build a lodge high in the Wye Creek cirque basin beside mountain tarns at an altitude of 1700 metres threatens the sensitive alpine environment of the basin and will destroy the remote feeling walkers, trampers, climbers and skiers currently experience.

Forest and Bird’s assessment of the law indicates that the Minister of Conservation should decline the proposal as it is contrary to the Conservation Act.

What You Can Do

Please help make this happen by writing to the Minister of Conservation, The Hon Chris Carter (Parliament Buildings, Wellington or chris.carter@parliament.govt.nz) asking him to ensure that any application for a lodge in the Wye Creek Area is declined.

Background information

Mountain setting is inappropriate for a lodge

A private tour operator, is planning to build a commercial lodge, for guided walkers, ski-iers and climbers in the Upper Wye Creek basin on the eastern side of the Remarkables, near Queenstown. The proposal includes providing for weekly helicopter access to supply and service the Lodge. The proponent says that an area will also be set aside as accommodation for “freedom walkers”.

The dramatic cirque basin is in the heart of the proposed Remarkables Conservation Park. It has very high botanical values, with fragile tarns and cushionfields, and it is highly valued for being easily accessible, yet once there it feels very remote and wild.

Forest and Bird is strongly opposed to this application, as are the Wakatipu Environment Society and Federated Mountain Clubs. The key reasons for our opposition include:

The Wye Creek Cirque Basin is one of the few accessible alpine areas near to Queenstown that is not developed and it should be maintained as such. Presence of the lodge and all the activity surrounding it will degrade and for many destroy the sense of isolation and remoteness of the valley.

A lodge and associated infrastrucuture will degrade the very high landscape and natural environment values by introducing structures, mechanical noise, wind and/or motorized generators and large groups of people into a seemingly unmodified natural environment.

The area has the highest known botanical values of the valleys in the proposed Remarkables Conservation Park and contains the best altitudinal sequence in the proposed park.
Fragile alpine/sub alpine communities and wetlands will be degraded and put at risk from increased trampling and associated activities, necessitating further development of structures and hardening of surfaces, thereby exacerbating the impacts of a lodge. Restoration of disturbed sites in this alpine environment would be very slow if not impossible to achieve.
The valley has a series of tarns which could easily be degraded by human effluent, and trampling round their edges.
The lodge with it’s attendant promotion is likely to significantly increase the number of people using the basin and increase damage through trampling and toileting.
The Society considers that the proposal is inconsistent and with the Conservation Act and the Otago CMS.

Proposed Remarkables Conservation Park

The Government is in the process of creating new Parks and reserves and open them up for public recreation. The Upper Wye Creek Basin is likely to be in the heart of the proposed Remarkables Conservation Park. It is inappropriate to create new private interest over this public conservation land, particularly when decisions on the overall management of the area have yet to be taken.

Establishment of a private lodge would pre-empt the rationale planning and development of the proposed conservation park. Recreational and tourism facilities associated with the proposed park should be developed once a rational management plan is place.

Privatisation of public space

This proposal is somewhat ironic given that the Crown is in the process of buying out private interests in the South Island High Country in order to reassert the public interest in publicly owned high country land.

In our view this proposal is an attempt to steal a pubic good and privatise it as a cheap way to avoid having to actually buy land on the open market and build accommodation as any other operator might have to.

Public-private mix unrealistic

The proposal attempts to woe the Department and the public by suggesting that the lodge will provide accommodation for the public as well. It is unlikely that the public would feel as if they owned the facilities, as they do when they stay in a DOC hut. This has been the experience of people visiting the Caroline Hut public shelter on Ball Ridge in Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park.

Public use will always be at the mercy of management decisions by a private commercial operator, whose primary interest is commercial rather than altruistically promoting recreation, as DOC is required to do.

Important botanical values in Wye Creek

The CMS records that there are particularly high botanical values in this are, the alpine and sub alpine plants are notable as the most eastern extension of several species. It is possible that there are several rare hebes in the valley.

The richness of Wye Valley’s biodiversity is indicated by the number of native plant species found. The current count is 380 higher plants, which compares with 288 in the Rastus Burn and a similar number in the Doolans Valley. It should be noted that the list of identified native plants is not complete and is being added to with further surveys.

2000m-altitudinal sequence

The Wye Valley is the most representative of all valleys in the Remarkables Ecological District with an excellent 2000m altitudinal sequence, from the top of Double Cone almost to the lake shore (2319 m – 308 m), a wide variety of habitats and the most diverse flora.

Eastern record of small snow patch tussock

The eastern most record of the small snow patch tussock (Chionochloa oreophila) occurs around the small lakes in the upper Wye basin.

Best cushionfield plant communities in the Remarkables

The upper Wye basin contains the best example of cushionfield plant communities in the Remarkables Ecological District with three Celmisia species (C. viscosa, C. brevifolia, C. angustifolia) not or rarely present in the Rastus Burn as well as the best examples of the local endemic speargrass Aciphylla lecomtei.

Rare and threatened species

Rare and threatened plant species found in the Wye Valley include:

five whipcord Hebe species (H. propinqua, H. hectorii, H. salicornioides, H. cupressoides, H. annulata) the latter two are on the threatened plant data base;
the largest population of the threatened cress Ischnocarpus novae-zelandiae in New Zealand found in scattered communities down valley;
coral broom (Carmichaelia crassicaule),
Carex edgarae;
Urtica aspera;
Uncinia purpurata;
Epilobium purpuratum;

Other notable plants found in the Wye include: Epilobium mathewsii, Myosotis macrantha and large colonies of Ranunculus buchananii. The latter are found around the upper rock faces and screes. These are increasing, now that grazing by animals has ceased.

Limited grazing of the lower valley by sheep and none over the past 15 to 20 years (although numerous hares) shows in the greater number of native grass species present, twelve more species than in the Rastus Burn.

Special Features

Geomorphology

The upper Wye basin contains excellent examples of a number of peri glacial features that are not as prominent or as readily seen in other adjacent areas. They include solifluction lobes and terraces, stone drains, stone stripes and nivation hollows. Glacial features include the cirque lakes, smoothed rock faces and glacial striations that are prominent along one side of the basin.

The Wye Basin faces south so is colder than the Rastus Burn and holds the snow longer.

Remoteness

Many people have commented about the feeling of remoteness that you get when passing from a developed valley (Rastus Burn) that is gradually showing more and more signs of degradation of its natural cover as the number of visitors increases and development progresses, into an apparently pristine landscape with few people (if any) and no development or signs development.

This feeling of remoteness is heightened by the deep, narrow glaciated valley dropping away to the south with its distant view of a small part of Lake Wakatipu. The peak of Double Cone towering above a series of bluffs and the massive, jagged, rock barrier containing the western side of the valley add to the feeling of remoteness and of the wilderness.

Accessibility

There are other mountain areas not far from Queenstown that are remote and where you can experience the wilderness but all of these are either difficult to get to or much further away from town. No other area with such high ecological values lies this close to Queenstown or is as easily accessible. It is this ease of access into an area that feels remote but that also has high ecological values and a wild beauty that is so important about the Wye Valley.

This page was updated on 18 April, 2005