{"id":169878,"date":"2025-12-05T18:27:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T18:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/169878\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T18:27:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T18:27:07","slug":"northland-four-lane-highway-route-to-take-whole-waipu-family-farms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/169878\/","title":{"rendered":"Northland four-lane highway route to take whole Waipu family farms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bryham and her husband planted their orchard 15 years ago, they have established gardens, and a kahikatea forest where her father\u2019s ashes are scattered. <\/p>\n

They have an architecturally designed home they could never replace. <\/p>\n

NZTA wants the lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe highway is going through our farm; they want our whole farm with six homes on it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all devastated. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know what to do next. Where do we go? <\/p>\n

\u201cThis was meant to be our forever home to pass on to our children. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur daughter thought it was her forever career milking her grandmother\u2019s cows and running the family farm.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"TheThe Northland Corridor includes three Roads of National Significance.<\/p>\n

In April, Transport Minister Chris Bishop revealed<\/a> the earmarked Northland Corridor would go from Warkworth east of SH1, over the Brynderwyn Hills, then through to Whang\u0101rei. <\/p>\n

In October, the Te Hana to Whang\u0101rei Investment Case was endorsed<\/a> by the NZTA board. <\/p>\n

This includes the preferred route for Te Hana to Port Marsden Highway, including the alternative to the Brynderwyn Hills, which is being prioritised. <\/p>\n

Bryham and her family are among 489 landowners NZTA has contacted about potential property impacts and the next steps. <\/p>\n

Bryham said her family met the geotech team in August, and there was another meeting on November 6. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey said they wanted it for the four-lane highway and Waipu interchange. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just ours, it\u2019s about seven other dairy farms in Waipu. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey want whole farms, so it means people lose their livelihoods as well as their properties.\u201d <\/p>\n

About 40 Northlanders attended the Waipu Residents and Ratepayers Association meeting on November 26.<\/p>\n

Chairman Richard Cole said the mood of the meeting was mixed.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people had just got letters, others were about to be visited, people were talking about what can I do? <\/p>\n

\u201cThey were all very surprised and quite a few are upset, because … their lives go on hold while someone decides when they\u2019re going to take it. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re going to plan on doing something with your property, no one will buy it because it\u2019s going to be bulldozed.\u201d <\/p>\n

Whang\u0101rei Mayor Ken Couper \u2013 whose Waipu<\/a> property is \u201cmarginally affected\u201d \u2013 said it was understandable why people were concerned. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn some cases it\u2019s people who have built their homes thinking they\u2019ll stay forever. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn other cases it\u2019s the farm that\u2019s been in the family for many generations. <\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely understand why people are concerned. <\/p>\n

\u201cI also understand the need for a four-lane highway. It\u2019s an enabler for economic growth in Northland.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"LindaLinda Bryham\u2019s family farm, including the forest where her father\u2019s ashes are scattered, is one of many impacted by the Northland expressway. Photo \/ Michael Cunningham<\/p>\n

Whang\u0101rei councillor Matthew Yovich said his 160ha family farm in Mata, which has been in the family more than 100 years, will be reduced by one quarter. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe area they\u2019re taking … includes two houses, a workshop, wool shed, a couple of smaller sheds, and the family grapevines planted by my great grandfather. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t make any of us very happy but progress has to be made \u2013 it has to go somewhere. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut they could narrow down the area they\u2019re talking about and give us more information.\u201d<\/p>\n

An NZTA spokeswoman said the project team was now working to refine the preferred route further. <\/p>\n

NZTA planned to lodge consents and designation of this section by mid-2026 and designation for the rest of the corridor by late 2026, she said. <\/p>\n

This was part of the route protection stage, which ensured the necessary land would be secured for future construction and would give landowners more certainty. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are still many different places the final road may go within the preferred route,\u201d the spokeswoman said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are currently undertaking geotechnical and environmental investigations as well as design development and having … conversations with landowners to help us refine the corridor further.\u201d <\/p>\n

To date, NZTA had met with over 90 landowners, and meetings will continue until mid-next year. <\/p>\n

\u201cWithin these sessions landowners will be invited to discuss their individual requirements and share valuable insights with the project team. <\/p>\n

\u201cLandowners between Waipu and Whang\u0101rei will be contacted again early next year with further information to book in their individual sessions with the project team.\u201d <\/p>\n

The spokeswoman said once the land designation was confirmed, \u201cwe\u2019ll seek to purchase land required closer to construction\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Public Works Act governs this process.\u201d <\/p>\n

Jenny Ling is a senior journalist at the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering human interest stories, along with finance, roading, and social issues. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bryham and her husband planted their orchard 15 years ago, they have established gardens, and a kahikatea forest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,33452,6097,2109,3233,12705,49157,110083,71,26348,26755,1345,5812,111,43,139,1067,69,34540,16784,63502,3235,199,165,210,61,32320,1869,14036,1533],"class_list":["post-169878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-auckland","tag-devastated","tag-down","tag-family","tag-farm","tag-farms","tag-forever","tag-fourlane","tag-from","tag-generations","tag-highway","tag-home","tag-make","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-northland","tag-nz","tag-passed","tag-room","tag-route","tag-sold","tag-take","tag-their","tag-through","tag-to","tag-waipu","tag-whangrei","tag-whole","tag-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}