Rear steer on that buggy? Is that reclaimed land that had been logged? Great pics.
Yes the buggy has rear steer. The front steers normally with a steering wheel and the rear steers with a joystick. When you let the joystick go it returns the wheels to centre.
The land is part of a 1,700ha (4,000 acre) park owned by the two local councils, Tauranga City Council and Western Bay District Council. Tauranga, and the Western Bay, have been growing at a phenomenal rate. The local rifle range, clay bird club, model aeroplane club and horse trekking area all got gobbled up by housing developments, both urban and rural residential. It got more and more difficult for these clubs to try and obtain land to operate so, in an unusually moment of fore thought and planning, the two councils got together and bought 1,200ha of production forest about 17 miles out of town. They soon added another 500ha to the park. The park has resource consents for basically all outdoor activities.
The park operates on a three levels, public facilities - off-leash dog exercise area, equestrian tracks, running, walking, mountain bike and motocross tracks; club activities with exclusive leases - Deerstalkers Assn rifle range, clay bird club, model aeroplane club, a club motocross track and the motorsport area we are part of; and commercial activities - high ropes area.
The area we are in is a 370ha (900 acre) area lease called Te Matai Motorsport Park (Te Matai being the name of the area and one of the roads bounding the area). We have a sub-lease for our track. The Te Matai Motorsport Park is run by an incorporated society (not for profit organisation). The Motorsport park sub-lease areas - our track, two radio controlled car tracks, an auto cross track plus and area of undeveloped tracks that the 4wd club have access to. There is also five miles of formed rally roads, with plans to increase to 12 miles and a large gravel area used for parking, car club events etc.
That is a long winded way to answer your second question, yes the land is harvested production forest. The large heaps are pushed up pine sash etc. These areas have been replanted in pine trees that are about six feet high.
In the motorsport area there is about 40ha (100 acres) of production forest that we can't access. There is 100 ha (250 acre) of mature pine forest with rally roads and other tracks through it that we can use.
