Film scout admits 4WD 'mistake'

A film location scout criticised for damaging a high country wetland in the Nevis Valley area while filming a 4WD advertisement admits he made a mistake, but says he had no idea the bog was a "fragile" ecosystem.

"I've been a film location scout for 20 years and this is my first mistake," Graham Thompson, of Christchurch, said yesterday.

"The bottom line was, I just followed my nose. I was parked on the side of the road with the director and we saw two 4WDs come out of the swamp and my director said: 'I wouldn't mind a shot like that', so we went and did it. I made a mistake and I've learned my lesson, but we were following in the tyre tracks of other people."

Mr Thompson was responding to Otago Conservation Board criticism. At its recent meeting, the board was told a pilot spotted the film crew in the Nevis early last month and photographed a 4WD stuck in the bog.

Board deputy chairwoman Abby Smith said yesterday that she understood from botanists that it would take 50 years or more for this fragile ecosystem to recover from that damage.

"And the last thing we want is for an advertisement to be screened making this kind of activity in the high country be seen as glamorous or acceptable," she said.

Responsible four-wheel-drive users have been working hard to develop good codes of practice and this contravenes everything they have worked towards."

The ecosystem had a diverse native plant community and was also home to distinctive wetland invertebrates.

The filming was on pastoral lease land and the board had referred the matter to LINZ.

Mr Thompson said the filming was for an advertisement to be screened overseas but the shot of the vehicle driving through the wetland would not be aired.

"I consider myself a conservator and I would never in a million years have gone in there had I known it was a valuable conservation area."

Mr Thompson said many 4WD vehicles and several motorcyclists went through that piece of land while he was there.

"It's not like it was a pristine, amazing area. There were sets of tyre tracks all through it."

There were no signs or fences in the area, he said.

Pioneer Generation owns the pastoral lease of Craigroy Station, where the filming took place. Assets manager Peter Mulvihill said the company knew nothing about the filming until afterwards and did not condone such activity.

It was part of a wider problem common to other high country areas, where 4WD motorists and motorcyclists gained access without seeking permission, he said.

"We're working with Linz and Doc on signage with the objective of educating recreational users in the high country."

The property was in the tenure review process and the piece of land concerned was likely to become conservation land.