Leave No Trace

Leave No Trace New Zealand promotes and inspires responsible outdoor recreation through education, research and partnerships.

It seeks to educate and challenge the New Zealand public and visitors on how and why to minimise their environmental impacts while enjoying natural and cultural heritage areas. You can do your part, inform yourself, seek out training and become an advocate for New Zealand’s beautiful landscapes.

The New Zealand Cycle Trail supports the seven principles by Leave No Trace, which are aimed at encouraging you to think about how to minimise the impact of your visits to the natural and cultural heritage areas of New Zealand.

Leaving no trace depends on your awareness rather than on rules and regulations.

1. Plan ahead and prepare

Before you go, check that access is permitted and that cycling is allowed in the place you plan to visit. Seek permission from private landowners, including tangata whenua when appropriate. Permits may be needed for certain activities such as fishing or hunting, or collecting natural materials.

Before you go, check that access is permitted and that cycling is allowed in the place you plan to visit. Seek permission from private landowners, including tangata whenua when appropriate. Permits may be needed for certain activities such as fishing or hunting, or collecting natural materials.

Cold, exhausted or unprepared people are more likely to leave a lasting impact. Plan to arrive at your destination in good time and with enough energy to make the best decisions for yourself and the environment. Good planning is the best way to have a great trip and leave no trace. Taking care of yourself comes first – safety is your responsibility.

Visiting popular destinations during high use periods, such as holidays and weekends, can be fraught with crowding and conflicts with other groups. If you can, plan your visit at other less busy times.

Be prepared to split larger parties into smaller groups to help minimise the impact you leave on the environment and other people.

2. Be considerate of others

We all enjoy the outdoors in different ways. Respect and expect others.

Make room for others. If you’re cycling, running or horse riding, control your speed, pass with care and let others know you are there, especially if you’re approaching them from behind.

Respect locals and their property. Pass quietly through farmland and leave the gates as you found them. Share the huts you stay in and welcome others who arrive after you. Leave huts better than you found them.

Listen to nature. Try to keep your group’s noise level down, especially at night and in remote areas. Avoid the use of bright lights, mobile phones and other intrusive urban devices. To some, technology is a necessity even in remote places. To others, it is inappropriate.

Avoid conflicts by making a conscious effort to allow all people to choose their own experience.

3. Respect wildlife and farm animals

As more people visit the outdoors, wildlife becomes affected by our presence. To avoid disturbing wildlife, observe animals from a distance. If the animal moves in response to your presence, you are too close. If you meet stock being shifted, look for instructions from the musterer to navigate your way through or past

Feeding endangers animal health and alters natural behaviours. Store your food and rubbish securely to avoid inadvertently feeding pests or endangered wildlife.

Lambing, mating, nesting or raising young are times when animals are most vulnerable to disturbance. Startled animals may abandon nests or their young resulting in the death of offspring.

4. No camping

There is no camping on the trail, and we do not recommend for your own safety to camp at reserves adjacent to the trail.  We recommend you stay at campgrounds.

5. Leave what you find

Conserve the past by not disturbing archaeological or historical areas. Many culturally significant sites are now parts of reserves and this is not always publicly known, so treat these places with respect.

Leave natural objects undisturbed – these objects derive much of their beauty from their surroundings and never look quite the same back home.

Load your camera, not your packs. Take photos, drawings and memories as your souvenirs.

Clean your clothing, shoes, bike and other equipment after trips and before moving into a new water catchment area, to avoid spreading weeds and other unwelcome invaders. Inform yourself of specific identified risks such as didymo and kauri dieback disease.

6. Dispose of waste properly

Rubbish is ugly and affects others’ outdoor experience. Even biodegradable materials, such as orange peel, apple cores and food scraps can take years to break down, and attract pests like rats and possums.

Never miss an opportunity to use a proper toilet facility and please don’t dispose of your rubbish in them.

Dispose of human waste responsibly. If you have to poo in the outdoors, do so in a hole dug 10 – 15cm deep at least 50m (100 steps) from water, campsites, and tracks. This will promote decomposition of the waste and reduce the likelihood that others may have unpleasant encounters. Cover and disguise the hole when you are finished and be sure to pack out all hygiene products in a plastic bag.

To wash yourself or your dishes, carry water well away from streams and lakes. Soaps, shampoo and detergents don’t belong in streams. If you must use them, use only small amounts of biodegradable products and rinse well away from streams.

7. No fires

This is Northland…there is more than likely a fire ban and if it is summer YES there’s a fire ban!