Auckland, Dec 30 NZPA - Controversy over a seaside stall on the country's most photographed beach continues to grow as the stall owner says tourists are happy he is there but locals want to send him packing.

Shanan Laird, 31, has set up a stall on the beach at Cathedral Cove, billed as one of the most spectacular beaches in the country and accessible only by boat or a 30-minute walk.

Mr Laird said tourists loved to see his stall, licensed by the Department of Conservation for a seven-week trial, once they reached the cove after a 30-minute trek in.

Other tourist operators, including boat charters, outside the cove, said a visit to Cathedral Cove was one of many "must-see" attractions on the Coromandel Peninsula.

Mr Laird said rather than spoiling the pristine cove, as he had been accused of by locals, he was leaving it in better condition than when he arrived.

He said he had had mostly positive feedback from visitors with only two negative comments from locals, since he began selling drinks and sandwiches.

Mr Laird said many people arrived at the beach, hot and bothered, with no food or water.

"All the tourists are just so happy that someone is there with water because they didn't realise the walk was so difficult," he said.

He took a table by boat to the cove each day and offered basic first aid, sunblock, snorkels, drinks and sandwiches to beachgoers, The New Zealand Herald said today.

Under his deal with DOC he had to clean the beach of all rubbish before he left each day.

Locals claimed they were not consulted and the licence could open the floodgates to hawkers.

The Green Party's conservation spokesman, Kevin Hague, said he would mount a challenge to the decision to grant Mr Laird the concession, "particularly, to do so without public input, which was scandalous.

"We rely on the department to conserve the values of places that are important to us, and I have yet to come across any permanent or part-time resident here who thinks this commercial venture has any role to play with this place we all love and value enormously," he said.

Mr Hague, who has a family bach at nearby Hahei, accused the Government of compromising the country's heritage by cutting funds to DOC and said its indifference to conservation and to New Zealand's natural environment was completely at odds with how New Zealanders felt.