Rarotonga Beach Dustup

This article on the struggle for access to a popular Rarotongan beach illustrates what is happening in many places around the world-as property values increase and property owners try to restrict access to local waterfront they believe they have control of.

COOK TOURISTS RAISE CONCERN OVER BEACH ACCESS

By Helen Grieg

RAROTONGA, Cook Islands (Cook Islands News, Sept. 11) – Public access to the Rarotongan Beach Resort and Spa beach is an ongoing issue with ownership claimed by managing director Tata Crocombe.

Recently tourists who were not staying at the resort complained about being told by resort security that it was a private beach and they would have to leave.....

click here for the rest of the story

Yes, this has been going on for a few years.
Basically, the resort---or anyone who owns land, or has a lease on it---owns the beach up to the point where the mean high tide occurs. The Crown (gov't) owns the lagoon, and the beach area that is dry when it is not high tide.

So, at a normal high tide, Tata would own the beach that is not wet. Tourists and other members of the public would thus have to walk in the water to go around his land.

This is the law in the Cook Islands.

I owned the lease of a beachfront section at Muri, but as a courtesy to the public, I did not build my retaining wall right up to the mean high tide mark, I started it about ten feet or so from my boudary with the lagoon. Thus, the public could always walk by, even at high tide. Most landowners/lessees follow this courtesy in the Cooks.

Tata's situation is a bit more complicated, since it is claimed the beach at the Rarotongan Resort is partly made from reclaimed sand from the lagoon, and, by law, all reclaimed land is owned by the Crown.

I was one of the first visitors to stay at the Rarotongan Resort when it opened in 1977, and after living on RAR for many years, I can tell you that the bebach there really does seem to be an unusual formation for that area of the island. I'm not sure it's from reclamation, or its position at the SW corner of the island, but it is a bit unusual to see a deep water area in the lagoon there, when it is shallow all around that area on both sides.

There is some tension over control of some beachfront land, but in Tata's case it really stems, I think, from a couple of unrelated things: petty crime from locals using the beach as their access point; and non-guests using his beach lounge chairs, swimming pool, and his other guest facilities, again gaining access via the beach.

Not sure if it will end up in the courts, as lawyers there do charge quite a bit, and is it worth it to a few people to spend all that money just to be able to walk hassle-free past his resort at high tide??

Anyway, just another reason why "paradise" isn't always a paradise.

Can understand the owners concern...on the other hand the community should still have access to the beach. Here in Hawaii, hotels have to give public access to the beach by law. Not only for beach goers but also to fish. Aloha

Yes, it should probably be that boundaries start 5m or so inland from the mean high water mark, rather than from the MHWM itself. But that's not the law in the Cooks. It would take quite a fight to get it changed to that, I would think.

The rule/law of MHWM applies here in Canada and many other places as well including IIRC Mexico.

Property owners are forever trying to interpret the law in their favour/draw lines in the sand-it was ever thus(!)