Proposed beach plot sell-off leaves kayak business at risk of closing

Saturday, 6 June 2026

A proposal to sell land used to access a Golden Bay beach has left the owners of a kayak business worried they’ll have to close.

The Tasman District Council is consulting the public on three options for 29 Cornwall Pl, Tata Beach - selling the site, selling part of it to Golden Bay Kayaks with an easement for public access to the beach and keeping the rest as reserve, or keeping the site and leasing it to Golden Bay Kayaks.

Golden Bay Kayaks co-owner Lisa Savage said the third option would provide no long-term certainty.

Meanwhile, the council said it had no preferred option and was entering the consultation with an open mind.

Savage and Tony Bateup bought Golden Bay Kayaks in 2011. The business had already been running for 15 years, and operated from a simple shed leased from the council on a three-yearly basis.

In 2014, they asked to buy some of the land - but said they were told it would be treated as a reserve, and would be a complicated process to do so.

In the following year the lease was renewed after public consultation, with the pair spending $35,000 in legal fees, Savage said.

In 2020, the couple again asked to buy the land, but say they were told iwi would not agree, and it wasn’t possible because of its reserve status.

Yet another lease process kicked off in 2023 - this time, with the council recommending that Golden Bay Kayaks be given a 20-year lease to give the business security.

But the consultation process never started and in August 2024, they received an email requesting a delay in public notification because of resourcing constraints, followed by another in June 2025 notifying them that the council wanted to sell the land.

After a valuation of $1.3 million and meetings with council management, Savage said she was assured they would be kept in the loop.

However, when public consultation on options for the land opened on May 15, it came as a surprise.

According to the council’s Shape Tasman website, the council had reviewed various council-owned properties and identified some, such as the Tata Beach site, as “potentially being surplus to requirements”.

Savage said the possibility of the land being sold and losing access - and wheelchair access - to that part of the beach was met with “a lot of outrage and a lot of shock” by the community.

Should the land be sold, it would mean Golden Bay Kayaks would have to close - at a time when the region could ill afford to lose businesses, she said.

“If this land sells we will lose our business as there is no where else to operate from and access will be lost all together for the public.”

Currently “very stressed” about the situation, Savage had been rallying the community to submit on the options proposed.

If Golden Bay Kayaks bought a piece of the land, access would be preserved for what Savage described as a “highly used space”.

Golden Bay councillor Celia Butler said there were three strands to the issue - the business at stake, public access to the beach, and the little penguins that nested on a piece of the land.

“We need all the functioning businesses in Golden Bay that we can get,” she said.

“I wouldn’t like to see a business go under because of a decision to sell what they have historically used.”

The northern end was a good place to launch kayaks and for children to swim.

“I am hopeful that people value that little corner of the bay,” she said.

“We’ve got enough millionaire houses here.”

Sometimes the benefits of retaining property outweighed the benefits of selling, and 29 Cornwall Pl could be in that category, she said.

Council communications officer Darryn Palmer confirmed Golden Bay Kayaks requested a 20-year lease, and that the concept was advanced.

However, soon after, councillors asked staff to consider what properties might be available for disposal, with the idea of reducing debt.

The lease renewal did not advance while the site was being considered for sale.

The council wanted to understand the community view on the three options, two of which provided for Golden Bay Kayaks to remain.

An outright sale did not preclude Golden Bay Kayaks from buying the land at market value, Palmer said.

The council also said it had no record of interaction with iwi on the issue.

It said the land is considered a park under the Local Government Act 2002, and any disposal - including a lease - required public consultation.

“Public submissions will give guidance on the future of this site,” Palmer said.

The council said chief executive Leonie Rae visited Golden Bay Kayaks and spoke to the company’s operators to discuss the situation on August 18 last year, and that a number of council staff and managers had also visited at various times to discuss options.

A submissions hearing is scheduled for June 29, and a recommendation will then be made to the council following deliberations.

“The intent is to give Golden Bay Kayaks certainty as soon as possible,” Palmer said.