In the 13 days since maintenance contribution tags for Otago's two newest cycling and walking trails went on sale, 141 have been sold.
Ninety-seven family tags, each worth $50, and 44 single tags, worth $25, have been sold at the Alexandra, Cromwell, Ranfurly, Roxburgh and Lawrence information centres.
The trusts behind the 34km Roxburgh Gorge Trail, between Alexandra and the Roxburgh Dam, and the 73km Clutha Gold Trail, between the Roxburgh Dam and Lawrence, announced almost two weeks ago that they would be seeking the annual contributions from trail users.
Roxburgh Gorge trail trust chairman Stephen Jeffery said it was always known that the trails would need to be self-funding and he was happy about the number of people who had bought tags.
He said he had had a ''steady stream'' of emails from people saying they were happy to pay for the use of the trails ''and they can't wait to get here''.
However, there will be no policing of the contributions - the trusts were relying on the honesty of users.
Counters will be installed along the trails to record the number of users.
Likely maintenance costs have been estimated but cannot be settled until the trails have been open for at least a year.
Tags are individually numbered and are a different colour each year. They will expire on September 30 each year.sarah.marquet@odt.co.nz
