Prime Minister John Key says the Government could chip in to a Givealittle fund hoping to buy a beach in the Abel Tasman National Park.
"It's not physically impossible to put a very small amount in," Mr Key told the Paul Henry programme this morning.
The Givealittle page, set up to buy the beach in Awaroa Inlet for public use and prevent it being privately owned, reached its target of $2 million on Friday, with more than 33,000 donors supporting the cause.
The tender on the property closes at 4pm tomorrow, though the organisers of the campaign aren't sure if the money raised will be enough to secure the beach.
Mr Key says if the shortfall is small, the Government could top up the difference.
"There's a fund there where the minister could put some money in -- that's independently managed but the board's quite interested in putting a little bit in," he said.
Real estate agent Glenn Dick says he has handed out around a dozen tender documents for the property but expects only half of those are potential buyers.
He has no idea what people might be willing to pay for the beach but says there have been no offers that "would look like just blowing [the Givealittle campaign] out of the water."
"You can imagine how close people are holding their cards to their chest with the scrutiny this whole campaign's under at the moment.
"We've had some people say 'we'll sit and watch and wait and if it doesn't work we'll come in', so there are buyers sitting on the side lines as well."
Mr Dick says the beach might not necessarily be sold to the person offering the most money.
"The highest bidder might not necessarily be the best one, it might have conditions in it which are not very satisfactory, it could be the third-highest which is the cleanest that might be the most attractive. So it can be any tender, it can be any offer that they can negotiate with."
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