Herenga a Nuku (Outdoor Access Commission) has produced easy to read information that describes the various types of public access along rivers, lakes and the coast. This includes information on unformed legal roads, marginal strips, esplanade reserves and esplanade strips.

An informative read – check it out at this website link

A lot of (but not all) this type of access is shown on the Outdoor Access Maps – see this link or search on “Outdoor Access Maps”. When you click on any coloured item in their maps, information about that land parcel is displayed.

These maps are derived from Land Information NZ (LINZ) data. Recently the Outdoor Access Maps data has also been updated manually to add around 3000 ha of public land that was not previously obtained via the automatic link between the two systems.

If you are wondering …. “The Queen’s Chain is more an aspirational concept than fact. It’s commonly pictured as a one-chain (20m) wide strip of public land along all water margins."