Wellington, New Zealand — Timmins, Ont., native Shania Twain hasn't even bought her multi-million dollar New Zealand ranch yet — but she's already upset the neighbours.
Twain and husband Robert (Mutt) Lange are still waiting for approval from the Overseas Investment Commission to buy Motatapu Station, a sprawling 17,000-hectare sheep farm near the tourist town of Wanaka in the Southern Alps.
As a condition of the purchase, the couple must comply with government requirements to give hikers, mountain bikers, climbers and hunters continued access to the land. But to preserve her privacy, Twain has proposed a new hiking trail — across land belonging to a neighbour.
Twain and Lange have offered to pay for two new huts and a hiking track from Lake Wanaka to Arrowtown, completely bypassing their homestead.
Neighbours Don and Vicky McRae said they were "totally shocked" by the plan to use their land, the Otago Daily Times reported Thursday.
The proposed track would particularly affect their deer farming operations and the terrain was treacherous, Don McRae told the newspaper.
Regional Department of Conservation head Jeff Connell said Thursday the proposal to use McRae's land was part of "the department's job to achieve public access to desirable" sites.
Finance Minister Michael Cullen, one of two ministers who must approve the proposed purchase, told The Associated Press last month that the sale wouldn't go through unless public access to the property was maintained.
Local media have reported that the couple offered 16-million New Zealand dollars for the ranch — four times a government valuation for the property.
There is growing public concern in New Zealand that foreign landowners are buying up some of the nation's most prized real estate and at the same time reducing access to beaches and mountain regions.
