What’s happening at the moment

Completion of the Milford Opportunities masterplan is the focus for the next three months, as all the work and feedback come together to enable the governance group to consider and decide on the final plan.

All of the workstream reports are now with the governance group for its consideration and to enable it to make the decisions on the masterplan recommendations. These reports provide extensive background on areas such as mana whenua, tourism, infrastructure, hazards, governance and more, as well as identification of the ideas that form the masterplan. All feedback from the public and stakeholders has been considered as part of the creation of these reports and recommendations.

A governance group meeting this month will receive the reports and will also discuss the look and feel of the draft plan, the general content, and the design concept for an animation video that describes it in a more visual medium.   

The draft masterplan will then be peer reviewed and completed by the end of March. It will then be given to government ministers for discussion in April.

We then aim to release the masterplan to the public in May/June and at that point stage two finishes. We want to emphasise there is another stage left in the project after this, which is the implementation of the masterplan by Government, if it chooses to do so. Detailed feasibility assessments, consultation and engagement are likely be required in stage three to move into implementation.

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Report on October engagement survey

The engagement survey in October 2020 provided respondents with 29 potential master plan ideas to make comment on. These ideas covered the journey from Te Anau, along the Milford corridor and into Milford Sound Piopiotahi. Respondents could make comments in open-ended text boxes on each of the ideas or just one, and there was a large variety from both the public and stakeholders.

A summary was produced which highlighted the top 10 (most positive comments) and bottom 10 (most negative comments) ideas out of the 29 key ideas.

The top 10 ideas had more than 85% positive comments and included creating new walking/cycling tracks connecting into Te Anau, developing better facilities and infrastructure in Milford Sound Piopiotahi, tourism funding conservation, developing new walking tracks and observations points in Milford Sound Piopiotahi, upgrading short stop options along the Milford Corridor, developing new family-friendly experiences in the Te Anau basin, creating a strong national park entry, redesigning the Te Anau waterfront and town centre, developing the Knobs Flat experience hub and investigating options in the upper and lower Hollyford Valley.

The more contentious ideas were removing the fixed wing plane runway from Milford Sound Piopiotahi (this had the largest and most negative response by far), enhancing the Cascade Creek campsite, both the two mixed access transport models, developing new Milford Sound Piopiotahi visitor accommodation, rebranding to recreate the Piopiotahi story, redeveloping the tourist boat terminal, restricting cruise liners in the inner sound, incorporating the commercial port into the visitor experience, and creating a super track head within the Divide area.

To see the summary, please click here.

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Te Anau social impact survey

We know that 2020 has been a tough year for businesses and residents of Te Anau, so the impact of tourism and its importance to the community is being investigated further with a survey and consultants visiting Te Anau mid-February to talk about recent challenges and what could happen out of this project.

We would like to encourage people to fill out the survey and also talk to the consultants on the street when they are in town for three days, starting on 15 February.

To access the survey, please click Te-Anau-Residents-Survey-Impacts-of-Tourism-on-the-Community

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Survey for the Fiordland Marine Guardians

The Fiordland Marine Guardians fisheries sustainability survey is live!
Visit: https://bit.ly/3nWy3YX

Take 15 minutes to have your say about recreational fishing in the Fiordland Marine Area.

The survey runs until February 17.

The purpose of this survey is to help the Fiordland Marine Guardians build a broader picture of the experiences and concerns of those who fish in the Fiordland Marine Area (FMA).

The Guardians want to understand fishers’ concerns about fisheries sustainability, the current health of recreational fish stocks, and overall fishing experience in the FMA, as they develop recommendations to the Minister of Oceans and Fisheries.

Manaaki Whenua-Landcare Research is conducting this survey on behalf of the Guardians. It should take less than 15 minutes. Participation in the survey is voluntary. The results are anonymous.

The Guardians will consider the results from this survey alongside input from two focus group hui before making recommendations to the Minister of Oceans and Fisheries, Hon. David Parker, in mid-2021. 

The survey results will also be made available via fmg.org.nz.

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