A business venture running paddleboat trips up the Wairoa River is being left high and dry, with Wairoa Marae officials instead preferring to deal with Battle of Gate Pa commemorations first.

Peter Kool was about to launch the 16m long paddleboat Otunui into the river last week when he was approached by iwi representatives saying he hadn't gone through the proper process.

The Otunui before attempts to launch it on the Wairoa River.

As a result of the riverside complaint, the crane driver refused to lift the 13 tonne paddleboat of the road trailer and the Otunui was instead put into the water at the Bridge Marina Travel Lift in Tauranga. It's currently on a rented bridge marina berth awaiting developments.

'We are that busy with Gate Pa we just put that on the back burner,” says Wairoa Marae committee chairman Philip Hikairo

The operator of a previous houseboat business that also used to operate out of the Waimarino complex 'did everything” says Phillip.

Paddleboat operator Peter Koole is today 'awaiting developments”.

He's being told he may require a resource consent, but there's nothing in writing.

Commercial operations on the river are subject to three bureaucracies holding legal power over various aspects of the river; the Tauranga City Council, the BOP Regional Council and the Western Bay of Plenty District Council.

In general terms, the TCC governs the Tauranga side of the river, the Western BOP the western bank and the regional council, the middle.

The river's management as set out in the Wairoa River Valley Strategy, states the river valley is managed by the three local council and iwi working together. The strategy itself states that it is not a legal document. It does not transfer any legal authority under the Resource Management Act or the Local Government Act to iwi.

The Western Bay of Plenty District Council says it's not their problem, because the paddleboat Otunui will be operating from the Waimarino complex on the Tauranga side of the river.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council maritime operations manager Reuben Fraser says whether the Otunui needs a consent from Tauranga City Council is yet to be resolved. The city council is claiming that any commercial activity requires a discretionary consent.

But that is based on an assumption that because there is no rule, it becomes discretionary.

Section Nine of the Resource Management Act states that you cannot do anything that contravenes a rule, says Reuben. The implication there is if there is no rule, then you don't need a consent.

The Otunui is New Zealand's oldest operating paddleboat. Peter's brought the operation to Tauranga from Mangakino hoping to provide rides up the river to the Omanawa River confluence and back.

Otunui began its working life on the Wanganui River in 1907 as a tunnel hull, a propeller driven boat with the propeller recessed into a tunnel in the hull. It was sunk in a flood in 1949 and dug out of a shingle bank and re-floated 20 years later by a jet boater who stuck paddles on it.

It was originally powered by two light oil engines.

'On the Wanganui River it was good to have a spare engine,” says Peter.

Otanui is today powered by a Toyota diesel, delivering a cruising speed of about 4.5 knots, a brisk walking pace.

Peter bought the Otunui in 2010 and has been operating her on the Waikato River hydro lakes.

'It's very nice, but there are not enough people there,” says Peter.

'It's a business and it has to pay for itself.”