The map
Find land and ask for access
Property boundaries, unformed legal roads and protected land, all switched on to start with.
Find country you want to hunt, then send the owner your hunter profile — licence, insurance and references — so they know they can trust you. Purple corridors are unformed legal roads you may already be able to walk without asking anyone.
Give it a moment to draw. Every time you move, it fetches the boundaries and unformed roads for that view out of 304,527 and 65,023 nationally. Usually a second or two, longer on mobile data — and panning again cancels the request in flight, so settling on one area and waiting is quicker than dragging while it works.
What is on this map
- 65,023
- unformed legal roads, from Herenga ā Nuku Aotearoa
- 304,527
- property boundaries, from LINZ
- Every
- road, vehicle track and foot track LINZ has recorded
What is a paper road in New Zealand?
A paper road — properly an unformed legal road — is a road that exists in law but was never built. The strip was set aside as public road when the land was surveyed, often more than a century ago, and the road was simply never formed. The public has the same right to pass along it as any sealed street: you may walk it, and on most you may take a vehicle, a horse or a dog, without asking anyone’s permission.
The land either side stays private. Stepping off the corridor is trespass, and the corridor is usually only 20 metres wide with nothing on the ground to show you where it runs — which is the reason to have it on a map at all.
A track on the map is not a right of way
This is the distinction that gets hunters into trouble, because legal right and physical formation are independent of each other. A paper road is a right with no track. A farm race is a track with no right.
| On the map | Legal right of passage | Formed on the ground |
|---|---|---|
| White line — public road | Yes | Yes |
| Purple corridor — paper road | Yes | No |
| Tan dashed — vehicle track | No — usually none | Yes |
Vehicle tracks come from LINZ topographic data, which records what is visible on the ground and says nothing about who owns it. Most are farm races or forestry roads on private land, so you need the owner’s permission to use one.
How do I ask a New Zealand farmer for hunting access?
Click a property boundary and the map resolves its mailing address from LINZ’s address data — without ever showing you the owner’s name. You then print a single A4 letter that folds into its own envelope, carrying a code the landowner scans to see your profile: your name, firearms licence, references and how you hunt. They can accept, decline or ask a question in about a minute.
Nothing about them comes back to you unless they choose it. That promise is the reason people answer at all.
What if a gate blocks a paper road?
A landowner may gate an unformed legal road to control stock, but they may not lock the public out of it. You are entitled to open the gate and pass through, and to leave it exactly as you found it. If a gate is padlocked against you, that is a matter for the local council, which owns the road — not something to force. Herenga ā Nuku Aotearoa will take it up on your behalf.
Even where you have every right to be there, tell the farmer if you plan to use a paper road that runs near the house or the sheds. It costs nothing and avoids a confrontation that helps no one.