ACCESS TO REES VALLEY STATION

Rees Valley Station extends from the Rees River to the top of the Richardson Ranges and in some places beyond into the Shotover River catchment. 

The station is shown in orange below on the topo map. 

Except for the Invincible Mine Reserve, the Rees River marginal strip, the Rees-Dart walking track and the Rees Valley Road, accessing the station requires prior permission from the Scott family.

The property is mostly Crown Pastoral Lease, a tenure that includes the exclusive right to occupy and a right of renewal in perpetuity – in other words the lease confers many of the same rights as freehold tenure. 

This means if you want to enter the property you must seek permission from the landholder first unless you are using the road, the river bank or the walking tracks mentioned below. 

The vast majority of the station is steep and untracked and so only accessible by foot or helicopter but public access is available on the Section 58 marginal strip (“Queen’s Chain”) on the Rees River and via the Rees Valley Road which is maintained by the Queenstown Lakes District Council to the carpark at Muddy Creek. 

This is where most people begin the Rees-Dart walking track which provides additional public access on the valley floor.  Just beyond Muddy Creek is a large terrace area known as Bridge’s Terrace, sloping down from Muddy Creek to Bridges Creek.  This terrace is freehold land also owned by the Scott family.

Please respect our fantastic environment and our stock as you traverse our land to reach Mount Aspiring National Park, whether on foot or in 4 wheel drive vehicles.  Damage from 4WDs in the Rees Valley is unfortunately very visible and often leaves permanent scars because of our high rainfall, which results in water further scouring out the marks left by tyres.  Dogs brought onto the property must be under control at all times and be up to date with treatments for sheep measles.  The upper valley is entirely taken up by conservation land and farm land, and as such is not an ideal location to take canine companions – dogs are not permitted in the National Park and working dogs on the stations rightfully claim their owner’s property as their own territory and could be aggressive with strange dogs.

The DoC maintained Rees-Dart track crosses station land until walkers cross the swing bridge upstream of the confluence of the Rees River and the Hunter Stream, well beyond where it is possible to drive to.  The public are free to use the walking track at any time but we do ask that anyone wishing to leave the river bed or bank, or the marked DoC track makes contact with us first to discuss their plans and seek permission.

The Invincible Mine track has a public walking easement on it, so you are able to walk to the mine site at any time without needing to seek permission.  However if you want to go beyond the immediate mine area, then you do need to get permission to do so.  The access track to the mine continues beyond the mine area and crosses the Invincible Creek onto Muddy Spur – it is essential that you contact us first if you wish to follow this route as both the Invincible and Muddy Spurs are regularly used to graze large mobs of sheep.  Merinos in the high country are easily disturbed by humans and will gather together or “mob up” rather than remain spread out over the full area available to them when humans are present.  This can result in environmental damage if they congregate or “hang” in one location for too long.

An easement also exists on the cadastral at the Oxburn Creek (12 Mile) but this is for the power company’s pipeline and is not related to public access.  The Oxburn is not generally available to the public due to the presence of two commercial activities with high health and safety requirements – the Pioneer Generation hydro dam and power station, and the Paradise Ziplines course.

If you would like to access other areas of our property, please check out our links to commercial recreation providers operating on Rees Valley or get in touch to discuss private trips in advance – in most cases there won’t be a problem as long as we know who to expect where and when so we can all be up with the play on anything we need to know about what everyone is doing and how it could impact on other users.  Recreational users share Rees Valley with hunters, possumers, film crews, tour operators and scientific researchers, as well as farmers so if we don’t know who else is there we can’t give them all the full picture about who is where and what to expect in the way of hazards, and visitors may experience a hazard they hadn’t anticipated if they don’t check with us first.  Please use the form on the home page if you would like to get in touch.