Thread: Drones on DOC land

Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

Does anybody have any comments on the original title of this thread? Cheers

yip...you have it WRONG...... it is not ,never has been and so help me God it never will be DOC land...it is public land ADMINISTERED by DOC.... owned by KIWIs of all tribes, colours and length of shalongs......long may it stay that way.

Originally Posted by Nick-D

Yeah, heaps of people using them without permits.

Better off without em imo, they are noisy obnoxious things, back country feels a bit less like the back country with one of them flying around.

Makes life a bit harder for the small time YouTuber I spose, but thats the trade off to keeping wild places wild.

A pox on all back country drone pilots, had one fly over us up the Oroua a year or so ago, it was a very unwelcome event in an otherwise peaceful outing. I go up the bush to get away from technological intrusions into our lives, so to have one buzzing around really ruined the day for me.
Went to Niue a few years ago, we were in a small cavern with about 3 metres of water as its floor, absolutely stunningly beautiful setting with the sunlight reflecting off the water to bounce all over the roof, I can still picture it in my mind. My kids were swimming around, while my wife and I lazed on the edge admiring the view, when another kiwi tourist turned. We said our hellos, bit of a chat and I asked her why she came to Niue. She told us she enjoyed the untouched natural beauty of the place, with few tourists and minimal human impact on the landscape. Her husband and son then joined us, unpacked their drone and flew it around in the cavern for the next 10 minutes "getting the right footage". I avoided them like the plague for the rest of the time we were on the island.

Originally Posted by Husky1600#2

I've given up trying to get a small game permit from DoC, every year for the past 3 years I have phoned them for one for the Rakaia and Rangitata area. The guy on the end of the phone was next to bloody useless!.....well actually worse than that. His final words were that DoC did not have any areas in the upper Rakaia or upper Rangitata that had any small game or geese to hunt. Go figure! I do go through the 15+ minute long phone process of getting a game bird permit though. We never use to have a problem when we phoned the local district office, but now that its been centralised its all turned to shit.

further to this -Iwas out on a scoot&shoot with a mate whose very conversant with thisDOC permit /rakaia rangitata issue . DOC have no concern with those riverbed areas so No permit required.we shot the rakaia for 3yrs GSPF for a lot longer and the issue didnt arise.if you want rakaia trouble try dealing with ashburton district council.caution do not wear your finest hairpiece it willbe shredded .GSPFcan speak to this from 1st hand experience!!