Well, we have bugger all navigable waterways, even if a Kiwi did invent the modern jet-boat to increase the potential to navigate our braided rivers (in a rathe

Well, we have bugger all navigable waterways, even if a Kiwi did invent the modern jet-boat to increase the potential to navigate our braided rivers (in a rather small boat). [0] In terms of rights to access rivers, it's complicated. There's the myth of the Queen's Chain [1], which has a kernel of truth in it, in very specific circumstances, but people had assumed it was far more broad reaching than it is. And then there's the Ad Medium Filum Aquae (AMF) concept from English common law: > By the common law, ownership of land adjoining a watercourse, which is not owned by the Crown, gives rise to the presumption that title extends to the middle line. It is a rebuttable presumption - that is, evidence to rebut (disprove) the presumption is always admissible. That said, a lot of the riverbeds and banks of the larger (by our standards) rivers are owned by regional councils - we run three levels of government, central, regional, and local, and regional is the most focused on water allocations and flood management, so giving them ownership of the riverbeds and floodbanks around flood-prone rivers is a no-brainer - so AMF doesn't come up too often, but if you hunt for rabbits or similar, which love the braided riverbeds, then knowing where AMF applies and doesn't is vital to not meeting a grumpy farmer. Unlike (what I've been told about) the UK, no-one can actually own the fishing rights to a river, nor the fish in the river. But you can own the land neighbouring it. And yeah, that's how you privatise a river - buy land on both sides of the river from farmers who had previously reached an agreement with the Department of Conservation or similar to allow angler access via specified routes, and then rescind that access. Of course, you can claim that you're not privatising the river because _technically_ the prime trout fishing stretch that your land now surrounds can be accessed via a hike upstream from Crown land that only takes 3 days one way. I mean technically, yes, it's not privatised, but realistically, it pretty much is. That said, the Crown is getting smarter about this, and is focusing more on permanent easements instead of relying on the goodwill of land owners - especially when rich American celebrities start buying up large high country farms, they tend to be rather... ...private, and thus averse to the public continuing to cross their land. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Hamilton_(engineer)#Jet_boats https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Hamilton_(engineer)#Jet_b... [1]: https://www.herengaanuku.govt.nz/knowledge/rivers-lakes-and-coast/access-along-rivers-lakes-and-the-coast/explaining-the-queens-chain-myth/ https://www.herengaanuku.govt.nz/knowledge/rivers-lakes-and-...