Real estate by koha? Your chance to get a slice of Canterbury's peaks

Reporter Northern Outlook

Hi Canterbury,

What do you think about the opportunity to transfer this hillside to public ownership? Will you be donating?

500-hectares of Lyttelton hillside has been put up for auction and Stuff has teamed up with a charitable trust to get the high-country plot into public ownership.

The Rod Donald Banks Peninsula Trust launched its Te Ahu Pātiki project to purchase the spot between Mt Herbert and Mt Bradley after an offer from a local farmer.

$1.5 million is needed to set up the park and the trust has been crowd funding for the last $600,000 it needs.

With five weeks until the deadline sale, $120,000 still needs to be raised.

Multiple land crossings scattered across the private land have been accessible only through land-owner permission. Ron Donald Trust manager Suky Thompson says that public ownership would guarantee the Te Ara Pātaka tramping network, running from Akaroa to Lyttelton, would always be accessible.

"Those private land crossings are unsecured, which means that they rely on the goodwill of the current landowner. If that landowner was to have a change of attitude, or if the land was to be sold to a new owner who didn't want the public there, they could be closed."

Head over to Stuff's and The Press' Givealittle page and don't forget to type NFP if you don't want your comment used in the Northern Outlook.