Ancient, unspoilt and more popular than ever
The remote and picturesque O parara Basin epitomises the struggle on the West Coast between conservation and tourism, writes Andrea Vance.
It’s a rough old road to the O¯ pa¯ rara Basin. Narrow twists and turns make the 15-kilometre trip up Mccallums Mill Rd a slow, but picturesque, one.
Native forest drips over the gravel forestry track, as it traces its way into the heart of the Kahurangi National Park.
The busy car park is your first introduction to this spectacular wonderland. Blue duck (whio) keep watch over their nests around its edges.
From there, a short, gentle path under a beech canopy runs alongside a whiskey-hued river.
Over centuries those waters slowly dissolved limestone rock, leaving behind the 43-metrehigh, 79m-long O¯ pa¯ rara Arch, at the end of the track.
It never happened, but locals love to tell gullible tourists how an aeroplane once cleared the span, the largest limestone arch in Australasia.
A longer walk, through rimu and towering kahikatea and over a forest floor carpeted with moss and ferns, passes the Moria Gate Arch. It’s named after the abandoned, underground dwarf kingdom of the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.
Duck down a side-track, grasping a chain and railings over slippery rocks and step into a dark and ancient Tolkien-like world. The chamber is 19m high, and overhead dripstones jut from the rocky ceiling. Underneath, whio paddle through the slow-moving water.
A path back to the car park, over the arch, leads to the Mirror Tarn, where placid, clear waters reflect the surrounding primaeval forest and mountainscapes.
The maze of tracks is already a popular destination. The gentle walks make it an easy visit for families to spend the day picnicking and wandering in the accessible caves.
‘‘What makes O¯ pa¯ rara Basin so special is that it is completely undeveloped,’’ photographer, outdoor guide and caver Neil Silverwood says. He’s been exploring the vast network for 30 years. ‘‘It’s probably the best place people can go to see limestone arches and caves in a fully preserved state, free of intrusive structures.
‘‘If this was anywhere else in the world, we would have suspended walkways going through the arch, we’d probably have a lift coming right into the cave entrance.
‘‘The O¯ pa¯ rara caves are not unique – caves in the North Island are similar, but those places have all been tamed. They have artificial walkways, stairwells going down inside, lights. You can raft or abseil through . . .
‘‘You can go to Waitomo and do that, but if you want to go to a place which is completely natural, you come to the
O¯ pa¯ rara.’’
An estimated 12,000-15,000 people now experience it every year. But that’s not enough for tourism bosses, who have developed a strategy to
boost numbers touring the West Coast by a quarter.
They want to draw crowds north to the Buller region, away from choke points at Punakaiki and Franz Josef.
A Tourism West Coast marketing plan, produced in 2017, aspires to boosting O¯ pa¯ rara visitors to 66,837 by 2021.
Numbers passing through the basin have already begun to increase organically. Records only go back a decade, but visitors have tripled in that time.
At the peak of the 2016-17 summer season just over 11,250 made the trip, two hours north of Westport.
To bring more people in, Tourism West Coast wants to transform the caves into a ‘‘world-class visitor attraction’’.
In November, the Government’s Provincial Growth Fund contributed $5.6 million to the development, a share of an almost $90m investment in the Coast’s tourist infrastructure.
The payoff in luring tourists north to Karamea and O¯ pa¯ rara could be an extra 155 jobs to the area – but at what cost?
The new visitors have put the cave system under pressure.
O¯ pa¯ rara is a karst terrain, canyons and caves hewn out of rock over millions of years.
New Zealand has very little karst (just 3 per cent of the landscape, compared with a global average of 14 per cent) and humans have already destroyed or transformed two-thirds of it through industry, agriculture and tourism.
Delicate limestone crumbles at the slightest touch, and formations sculpted over millions of years can be carelessly destroyed in a heartbeat.
‘‘It is probably the last area left where tourists can see unmodified karst landscapes, still in its original form,’’ Silverwood says. ‘‘That is what the drawcard for the O¯ pa¯ rara is, and that is why we have got to preserve it exactly as it is now.’’
Conservationists reserve their deepest concern for O¯ pa¯ rara’s shy and rare wildlife. The Nelson cave spider, or spelungula cavernicola, has made the twilight caverns its home.
‘‘It is New Zealand’s largest spider. It is terrifying, actually,’’ Silverwood says. ‘‘It is about the size of your hand, and there are very few . . . [they] live in the
O¯ pa¯ rara Basin in a handful of caves, the Heaphy River and a couple in Golden Bay.’’
The huge, furry beasties are disturbed by curious tourists brandishing torches or camera flashes, and are being driven further and further into the cave system. They find their prey, mostly weta, by vibration, so heavy footfall can be disconcerting. Their egg sacs, which hang down from the cave roofs, are extremely fragile.
At the moment, the spiders live in the Crazy Paving and Box Canyon caves, where access is unrestricted.
Spider-lovers say that might need to change. The spider’s conservation status is ‘‘at risk’’ and it is the only one protected under the Wildlife Act.
‘‘On a recent trip, I saw tourists actually going around the cave searching for spelungula so they could get a selfie taken with them,’’ Silverwood says. ‘‘We also saw a crushed egg sac. It had been
knocked off the roof by someone’s helmet and fallen down, still with the baby spelungula spiders [inside], and someone had actually stepped on it and crushed it.’’
Increased human activity also puts the basin’s other rich flora and fauna at risk. Its meateating, giant land snails are endangered, as are whio, New Zealand falcon and ka¯ ka¯ .
The Department of Conservation (DOC) is yet to carry out an environmental assessment on the potential impacts of increased visitor numbers.
Silverwood says that’s unusual because it is typically a first step in developing natural wonders. He believes it sets an uncomfortable precedent in which business interests are taking the lead.
‘‘The Department of Conservation is working closely with MBIE [the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment] and Tourism West Coast to develop this basin.
‘‘We’ve never seen DOC take on a development-type role before. Its role is to look after our biodiversity, manage recreation and allow for tourism.
‘‘But we are now seeing the department focus, more than ever, on tourism rather than on recreation and biodiversity.’’
Forest & Bird’s Canterburywest Coast manager Nicky Snoyink shares Silverwood’s worries. ‘‘The bottom line is, these caves, especially the Honeycomb caves, are specially protected. They are a living or a natural heritage and the protection for them is already inadequate.’’
Currently, the O¯ pa¯ rara Valley
Project Trust operates guided tours into the Honeycomb Hill Caves, with a concession from DOC. Numbers are strictly limited and the tours cost between $95 and $150.
Snoyink says that doesn’t keep unwelcome visitors – or looters – out. There is a thriving market for illegally plundered moa remains, which fetch up to $350 for a single bone.
‘‘There is a gate you can get around to wander on in. Subsequently, the moa bones get pilfered and the next thing is they are for sale.
‘‘It is impossible to fence it, or gate it off, because there are heaps of different entrances. But putting a gate close to the existing car park would make it a 5km walk and that would put people off. That’s probably a really good start.’’
Conservationists are relieved elaborate plans to create a moathemed attraction at the caves were wound back last year. Karamea was to be rebranded ‘‘Moa Town’’, with a giant bird installation planned and marketing based around a ‘‘lost world’’ of extinct moa and Haast eagles.
But the proposals have left them mistrustful of further development.
Tourism West Coast chief executive Jim Little admits the moa theme park plans were ‘‘outlandish’’. He says the latest plan is an infrastructure upgrade that is ‘‘all about retaining the natural heritage of the place’’.
Most of the $5.7m cash
injection will go into widening the road, which currently is not suitable for motorhomes. Little says there will also be new toilets, handrails and pathways.
And a viewing platform is planned for the Mirror Tarn.
He’s vague on the details, and refers queries to DOC. His visitor number projections are also much more conservative than the 60,000 outlined in his agency’s strategy documents.
‘‘If they could get it up to about 25,000, that would be the maximum during the year. That’s sustainable, it works for the small community of Karamea.’’
He is not worried that larger crowds will put pressure on the ecosystem. ‘‘Basically, if people stick to the tracks and walkways and so on, there is no change to that. If it is properly managed, no, I’m not [concerned]. The Department of Conservation and others need to manage it properly and do a good job of it.’’
DOC’S Buller operations manager, Robert Dickson, says plans are still at a ‘‘concept phase’’ and the agency has been consulting the community, conservation boards, Forest & Bird, Federated Mountain Clubs and the New Zealand Speleological Society.
‘‘DOC will be managing the work and it will be in line with infrastructure at other DOC sites – low-key, understated and designed to protect the environment with the increasing number of visitors the site receives.’’
No boardwalks or platforms are planned for inside the caves. ‘‘A plan to place a viewing area at the Mirror Tarn, to alleviate the effects of people walking inappropriately around it, will require further scoping and an assessment of environmental effects.’’
Visitor numbers to the site will be monitored over coming summers, and the assessment will be done before any work is carried out, he says. ‘‘DOC is mindful of increasing numbers of visitors.’’
He acknowledges there are 65 entrances to the Honeycomb Hill Cave system. ‘‘Gating these is not feasible. Additional security by way of camera monitoring will be installed at the car park and cave access points, which will remotely trigger alerts to rangers should people other than the concession holder be detected.’’