Peace has broken out in a dispute between wealthy Queenstown neighbours over helicopter flights.
A group of Malaghans Rd residents have reached an agreement with Australian billionaire Tim Roberts over his use of a helipad on his property.
The agreement, reached during an Environment Court mediation last month, means the neighbours' group, led by Queenstown builder Allister Saville, will drop an appeal.
Mr Roberts was granted consent late last year to operate the helipad from his 12-hectare property to give him easier access to his high-country farms on the southern side of Lake Wakatipu.
The decision, allowing Mr Roberts to fly his helicopter to and from the property up to 120 times a year, was immediately appealed to the court by Mr Saville and four other neighbours over noise and privacy concerns.
A game of legal ping-pong ensued, culminating in an Environment Court hearing about preliminary legal issues in April.
Mr Saville said the mediation agreement, which restricts Mr Roberts to 90 flights a year, had "struck a line in the sand".
"It's better than sitting there watching him zoom in and out and thinking `I wish I'd done something about that'.
"There was no sense of elation at the end of it, because I still think the process was wrong.
"But we've all wasted enough time and effort on it when we've got better things to do."
He did not feel any animosity towards Mr Roberts.
"We still share the same driveway - I don't think there's any problem there at all.
"We've got a result. Good or bad, you've got to take it on the chin."
A party to the appeal, Peter Faul, said the agreement was "something we can all live with".
Mr Roberts had agreed to abide by a 500m exclusion from his property and that of another party, Brett Giddens.
"That gives us some benefit in terms of what's always been an underlying concern for me, and that's privacy.
"It's not just a noise issue, but a privacy issue through low flying."
The amendments to Mr Robert's consent also included some "tweaks" to the allowed frequency of flights within a single week or month.
"I think Tim appreciates the concerns the other parties have, and he's going to do his best to be as neighbourly as he possibly can be.
"So we'll give him a chance to demonstrate his goodwill."
Mr Roberts did not respond to a request for comment.
