Natural beauty tainted by trash
If you’re after a spare car door, a paddling pool, perhaps a patch of carpet, then Waipunga Falls is the place to be.
Tucked down a tarsealed drive in deep bushland off the Napier-Taupo¯ Rd, State Highway 5, the falls are one of New Zealand’s hidden gems. Yet, it’s magnificent natural presence is tainted by litter, rubbish and human waste.
The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) manages the car park/viewpoint and uses contractors to clean the site. The land itself belongs to Nga¯ ti Hineuru, who will soon gift the land back to the Department of Conservation (DoC).
Manager of culture and environment for Nga¯ ti Hineuru, Te Rangihau Gilbert, visited the Waipunga Falls car park last week and was saddened by what he saw.
‘‘When we first drove up it didn’t look too bad, but it wasn’t until we got out and had a look around, I noticed there was a lot of rubbish and I was very disappointed.
‘‘There’s a spot where you stand to look out at the falls and just down below someone had tossed a chair down the bank. It’s not going to be easy to access, so if that’s down there, you wonder what else has been thrown down.’’
Taupo¯ tour guide Paul Dyson, a regular at the site, usually takes a bag which he fills with cans, bottles and takeaway cartons. In November, he spotted larger items such as the car door and paddling pool, but said they were too big for him to take away.
‘‘Whoever does look after the viewpoint at the falls has mowed the grass around the rubbish but just left it there,’’ Dyson said. ‘‘(It’s) definitely locals who have dumped this trash but freedom campers also stay up there and leave rubbish and toilet paper. There’s no bins and no-one seems to want to take ownership of the issue.’’
Acting Waikato system manager Rob Campbell said the NZTA, through its Network Outcomes (NOC) supplier, contracted Downer to collect rubbish at the car park.
He labelled the dumping of rubbish as a environmental and aesthetic issue, but said there were no plans to install toilets or rubbish bins at the falls. ‘‘We received a complaint about the rubbish at the car park late last week and our contractors visited the car park to remove the rubbish. A follow-up inspection (on Tuesday) showed the car park to be clean and free of litter.’’
Campbell said additional safety standards had an impact on ‘‘all standards of maintenance’’ and resources targeted areas of ‘‘highest need’’ such as potholes, surface damage and road markings.