Volunteers do the hard yards
What do you do if your much loved wilderness track has been repeatedly damaged, leaving questions over its future?
For a group of Golden Bay volunteers the answer was easy.
You apply some Kiwi DIY, roll up your sleeves and set about saving it yourselves.
Sixteen residents from the small town of Collingwood in Golden Bay are desperate to keep the Kaituna Track open to the public, and have been working hard to stop it being permanently closed. They have formed the Kaituna Track Restoration Society and, in partnership with the Department of Conservation, have taken over the fixing and maintenance of the track.
Member Brian Cooper said the group had repaired more than half the storm damage on the track up to the Kaituna Forks, over a few months.
‘‘Any of the major work, such as chainsaws and explosives, will hopefully be done by DOC but we’re cutting tracks and cutting steps,’’ he said.
February’s ex-Cyclone Gita tore through the bay and badly damaged a number of DOC areas, including the Cobb Valley and parts of the Abel Tasman National Park.
An increase in extreme weather events has left DOC questioning whether it can continue fixing low-use areas such as the Kaituna Track in the Kahurangi National park, if they face repeated storm damage.
Repair bills this year have totalled hundreds of thousands of dollars to date.
DOC Golden Bay operations manager Andrew Lamason said that without the society’s hard work, there wouldn’t even be a Kaituna Track now. ‘‘We haven’t even been able to get in there and start anything there yet.’’