Two Northland sisters say they're devastated a rare wetland forest where their father's ashes are scattered could be felled to make way for a new highway.
By Peter de Graaf of RNZ
Heather Jean and Linda Bryham live just north of the Brynderwyn Hills, where two towering stands of kahikatea trees flank State Highway 1 and form a natural gateway to the historic town of Waipū.
However, the trees' days may be numbered, because they are in the path of a proposed new four-lane highway and two roundabouts.
Five homes owned by family members may also have to be moved off the land or demolished.
Heather Jean Bryham said the prospect of losing the land their family had farmed for three generations, and the trees, was "devastating".
She said her parents moved onto the farm in the 1960s, when one stand of kahikatea was already fenced to keep stock out.
A second block was fenced off 35 years ago, and the family had kept it free of weeds and pests.
The stands also contained a number of ancient pūriri trees with girths of up to 6m, she said.
Earlier this year NZTA told the family it could eventually require 90% of their land, leaving them just two small flood-prone areas – one accessible only by kayak.
The land was needed for the four-lane Northland Corridor linking Auckland with Whangārei.
Heather Jean Bryham said surviving lowland forests were rare, especially kahikatea swamp forests.
"It's an intermittent wetland. It's full of bird life. We've worked hard looking after it, and it's very special to us," she said.
Her sister Linda Bryham said the current State Highway 1 was put through the middle of the forest in the 1990s, splitting it in two.
"When the bypass was built around Waipū, our family were allowed to keep this piece of kahikatea swamp forest because that's where we'd spread my father's ashes. He passed when he was only 48. That was a big shock for our family, but my mother kept farming."
Linda Bryham said many locals also felt connected to the trees.
"It's like a gateway. When you're driving from Auckland, you arrive at the kahikatea forest and then turn into Waipū. It's hard to imagine how someone can make a decision to cut down a hundreds-of-years-old forest. Even though it's small it's very beautiful and it can never be regrown again."
Heather Jean Bryham said she and her sister were in their 60s and their mother, who also still lived on the farm, was in her 90s.
"She's happy there and we don't want to move her. We don't know where we'll go. We've all got orchards and gardens that we've put in. Some of our homes can't be moved," she said.
"So we're pretty sad about that, and pretty sad about losing our forest, which means so much to us."
She said the family had also dedicated a lot of effort and money – around $120,000 – over the past five years planting the banks of the Ahuroa River, which flowed through the property.
She understood the need for a new route over the slip-prone Brynderwyn Hills, but questioned why the existing highway over flat land further north could not be widened.
An NZTA spokesperson said the Northland Corridor project was split into three separate Roads of National Significance – from Warkworth, where the motorway currently ended, to Te Hana; from Te Hana over the Brynderwyn Hills to Port Marsden Highway, at Ruakākā; and from Port Marsden Highway to Whangārei.
Warkworth to Te Hana was the most advanced with contract negotiations already underway.
However, for the middle section, which included the forest at Waipū, the route had not yet been officially designated and no final decisions had been made.
"There is currently no confirmed requirement for property and NZTA is not wishing to purchase any property at the moment," the spokesperson said.
"This means landowners can continue to use their properties as they do now. Once the land requirement is confirmed, and construction funding and timelines are known, we'll seek to purchase land required closer to construction."
The spokesperson said NZTA normally only sought to acquire land about two years before construction began, which could still be many years away.
Meanwhile, environmental group Forest and Bird has been raising concerns about the planned route over the Brynderwyn Hills.
The original plan for an alternative to the narrow, slip-prone highway over the Brynderwyns was to build the new highway over farmland well to the west.
The previous Labour government put those plans on ice in 2018 but they were revived by the current Coalition and given urgency after the storms of 2023, which left the main transport link between Auckland and Northland closed for months at a time.
In 2025, the government announced the Brynderwyn alternative would not go around the hills, as originally mooted, but over the top, close to the current route.
Forest and Bird Northland conservation manager Dean Baigent-Mercer said that made no sense.
"Clearly, we need a new road over the Brynderwyns because it's falling down and it's been destroyed by severe weather events, including Cyclone Gabrielle, but what NZTA is pushing through fast track is actually not far under the road that exists on that really dodgy substrate," he said.
The route also went through ancient forest that was home to rare native species.
"There's both critically threatened long-tailed bats in the area and Hochstetter's frogs, which are really vulnerable and have been killed in the changes that they've made to the Brynderwyn road already. So what we don't want is more impacts on those species. We need less."
The nocturnal Hochstetter's frog grew to just 5cm, lived near streams such as those flowing down the Brynderwyns, and was found only in New Zealand.
Baigent-Mercer called for a return to the earlier option that went around, not over, the hills.
The NZTA spokesperson said a western route had previously been considered, but after reassessing the options in the light of the new Government Policy Statement on Land Transport and recent weather events, the preferred route was now close to the existing highway.
"While there is some challenging terrain, this is a more direct route with more predictable geology. Early costs also showed a far western option to be the most expensive due its greater length, increased earthworks, complex consenting requirements and challenging geology."
He said the presence of Hochstetter's frogs and bitterns, which lived in wetlands at Doctor's Hill, just north of the Brynderwyns, had also been considered.
Any effects on those species and their habitats would be mitigated.
The spokesperson said the Northland Corridor was listed in Schedule 2 of the Fast Track Approvals Act, which meant the government expected NZTA to use fast-tracked consenting.
While that offered a streamlined approval pathway, independent expert panels made sure robust environmental safeguards were maintained.
According to a timeline published on the NZTA website, the agency planned to issue notices of requirement for land along the Northland Corridor later this year.
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