‘I’m pretty certain he’s trying to force us out’

Lionel Barnes sits in his house at Kumara Junction, a stone’s throw from the Tasman Sea in Westland, but part of his heart resides in Canterbury’s mountainous high country.
He and wife Jeanette are trustees of 101 hectares of tussocked, freehold land near the boundary of Arthur’s Pass National Park. “It’s lovely out there,” Jeanette says, wistfully. “Wake up and hear the birds instead of the cars. Love it out there.”
But the couple, and the wider family – who also own a 10ha block on which there’s a cottage, near scenic Lake Grace – find themselves locked in a battle over access with Lukas Travnicek, the owner of Canterbury’s largest high country station, the 40,000-hectare Mt White.
Travnicek bought the station, a two-hour drive from Christchurch, for $28 million in 2018. A few years later the Czech-born businessman approached the Barnes family to buy their blocks but they rejected the idea before an offer was made.
About two-and-a-half years ago, Travnicek’s company, Southern Ranges, erected gates at the homestead – the headquarters of the company’s burgeoning farming, tourism and honey operation – and started charging $250 per vehicle for access to the back country. The Barnes family gets a 25 percent discount, acknowledging its historical ties to the land.
“It was a shock,” Lionel says, “because I was never brought up in that way.”
The 80-year-old, who has four children and 11 grandchildren, believes the charge is an attempt to restrict access. “He offered to buy it and we turned him down – said no, it’s not for sale. And I’m pretty certain he’s trying to force us out.”
The stoush involves Toitū Te Whenua Land Information NZ, the Crown’s land manager, because the Barnes family has applied for access across Mt White’s pastoral lease. There has been an initial decision on the easement, and a re-hearing decision is imminent.
The situation is complicated.
Access to the Barnes family’s land isn’t entirely on public road; a portion crosses Mt White’s freehold land. The easement application is an attempt to literally get around that freehold land by seeking Toitū Te Whenua’s approval to use an unformed legal road on the leased land.
Other sections of the road have been re-routed by Southern Ranges, in track upgrades costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Travnicek tells Newsroom annual maintenance costs for the track is in the “many tens of thousands of dollars”, and the charge is a fair contribution. “We do not intend and have not proposed to restrict access for the Barnes family to enjoy their freehold titles at the Lochinvar and Lake Grace.”
Jason Barnes, of Springfield, a trustee of the family’s land near Lake Grace and Lionel’s nephew, understands Travnicek’s position. “However, I also believe that we have a legal right to be able to access our property. If you build a property down the back end of a subdivided section you are provided with access to your property.”
In this case, the “driveway” is about 28 kilometres long.
Costs for access and maintenance between shared property owners has to be fair and reasonable, Barnes says – “not just on the basis of the person up-front paying for it and dictating the cost”. The family also believes the public should have access without charge.
Southern Ranges has been a controversial owner of Mt White – the station previously owned by the Turnbull family since 1924. Under Travnicek’s ownership, the station denied mountain bikers access to the Poulter River Valley, to the national park, during lambing and calving season.
It also filed a judicial review against a decision by the Commissioner of Crown Lands, a statutory manager who reports directly to the minister, to remove the Riversdale Flats from the Mt White lease. The 1000ha block near the Waimakariri River had been reserved, more than a century earlier, for national park purposes. (Southern Ranges lost in the High Court and has appealed, with a hearing scheduled for March next year.)
Newsroom asked Travnicek in 2018: Given the station is a Crown pastoral lease, was he willing to share this special place with the New Zealand public?
“The short answer is yes. The long answer would be something like there always has to a balance between farming operations and public access.” There were beautiful places on the farm that tourists could visit without interfering with the farm, he said at the time. “I have no reason to change it. I’m happy with that.”
It was Lionel’s father George Barnes, a shepherd at Mt White who later went to work at neighbouring Craigieburn Station, who bought 600 acres between Lake Grace and the so-called “Mounds of Misery” from John McAlpine in 1947.
Some of the original freehold was sold to the Department of Conservation in 1996, with the remaining blocks left to George and Thyra’s sons Lionel and Howard. Howard, father of the aforementioned Jason Barnes, died in 2019.
Gerald Sandrey’s book The Legend of Mt White Station said: “Barnes’ sons have built a tidy cottage quite close to Lake Grace on the freehold they retained and frequently family members drive the difficult two-hour route from the Mt White yard up the Esk Valley to this idyllic setting.”
Back at Kumara Junction, Lionel says his earliest memory of the Lochinvar flats and Lake Grace was travelling there with a tractor and trailer. “I was old enough to shoot a deer – but that doesn’t mean much because I shot one when I was about 8 years old.”
His father paid for the land within the first year out of the money he made from deer skins. “During the war they used to use the deer skins to line the fuel tanks on the planes. A bullet goes through the fuel tank, into the skin, it would seal it; seal the hole.”
Access to the freehold land wasn’t a problem with the Turnbull family. For 70 years, the Barnes family made arrangements in advance, avoided trips at certain times of the year, and visitors paid a $30 fee.
“Mt White said they wanted a track fee so we gave them one,” Lionel says. “And they were happy with that, and so were we.”
However, the Turnbulls were reluctant to formalise access for the Barnes family before they sold in 2018.
Now, the station is unrecognisable, Lionel says. “It was what I’d call a proper high country station but now it’s bloody-near a town square. Plus there’s huts out the back, too. That would have cost a fortune.”
Mt White’s marketing to tourists emphasises the privacy and seclusion. Mountain bikers can enjoy “wide open spaces, extraordinary vistas, and a whole new level of remoteness”.
“Mt White in the Southern Alps is a landscape experienced by very few. Until recently closed off to the public, this high country station is now opening its doors to share the magic of this special place.”
Off-peak rates for the Shearers’ Quarters Lodge start at $1400 per night for up to seven guests, with a minimum two-night stay.
Lionel Barnes resents having to pay a fee to access the family’s land when the family wasn’t consulted on the track upgrades – and, he says, about 75 percent of the road to get there is public.
Wife Jeanette chimes in: “Travnicek was the one that upgraded the track for his tourism. I don’t see why we should have to pay for the upkeep of the track; we were quite happy with it the way it was.”
Nephew Jason questions why Southern Ranges’ operation, established in 2018, is interfering with the family’s ownership dated back to 1947? “Yes, all of a sudden he’s expected to be recognised for his multi-million dollar operation over and above our historical rights.”
He compares the situation to other wealthy foreigners, such as Matt Lauer and Shania Twain, swooping on remote, high country land.
Travnicek, a New Zealand resident, says Mt White undertakes constant maintenance of the high-altitude, remote track because of its steepness, and regular weather events bringing rain, snow, and ice.
“What we have asked the Barnes family to contribute to have this access maintained is a miniscule percentage of this. The problem that we see is that they have been operating in the paradigm of free use for a long period of time, having paid virtually nothing for the right of access, which, in our view, does not constitute any right for free access in the future.”
Commissioner of Crown Lands Craig Harris says Toitū Te Whenua received two applications from the Barnes family for easements across Mt White pastoral lease to access their properties. The initial application was made in April 2022. It was then revised and re-submitted in December.
Just before Christmas last year, Toitū Te Whenua granted a conditional easement over the existing farm track, and declined the alternative routes proposed by the Barnes family “due to the impact on inherent values”. 
“These conditions include compensating the lessee for the loss in value of the lease, which is a statutory requirement,” Harris says. “This was assessed by a registered valuer. Other conditions include contribution towards maintenance of the farm track and payment to the Crown for access over public land.”
The decision said if the easement was accepted, for each block the Barnes family would be required to pay the commissioner $16,100, reimburse Southern Ranges $38,800 (plus GST if any) “for the loss in value of the lease”, and pay $60 towards track maintenance for each return trip.
The Barnes family applied for a rehearing, which is being considered. “A decision is expected by the end of the month.” 
Jason Barnes, Lionel’s nephew, calls the Lochinvar and Lake Grace areas “classic, high country New Zealand”.
“It is everything you want to do in this country: it is hunting, it is fishing, it is relaxation, it’s tramping, walking, isolation.”
There aren’t many places in New Zealand you can say were handed down from generation to generation for recreation, he says.
“My father has a plaque out there that said it was bequethed to him from his father to be held in perpetuity for all to enjoy, not just the family, but anybody who has the ability and the permission to access should be able to enjoy it.”
Right now, permission involves paying $187.50 per vehicle to visit their freehold land, on top of fuel costs. “Just for a weekend,” says a bewildered Lionel. “It’s just wrong.”
The introduction of a fee has meant Lionel spending less time in the high country – “mainly because I won’t pay him”.
Jason Hitchens, of Christchurch, who is married to Lionel and Jeanette’s daughter, Erin, wants to see permanent, unimpeded, and free access to the family’s holiday spot. “It would mean that I can start to fulfill Lionel’s wishes of seeing something built on his property before he dies.”