Great strides
for new Great Walk
The Paparoa ranges hold some of New Zealand’s most pristine wilderness. The views from the mountaintops are superb. On one side, forest-clad hills drop steeply towards the dazzling Tasman Sea. Snow-capped peaks of the Southern Alps fill the horizon in the other direction.
Lower down, some of the best old growth bush in the country sprouts from the steep slopes, home to some of the country’s best-loved wildlife. Until now, much of this national park has been inaccessible to all but the hardiest of trampers, with few trails to provide passage through the tough terrain.
But that’s about to change, with work underway on the Paparoa Track.
The new track is a symbol of hope for many in West Coast communities struggling through the decline of mining. Tourism is a way forward for the region, playing on its exceptional natural beauty.
But this project comes from a disaster which devastated the local community and left the country reeling. The bodies of 29 men remain under the Paparoa ranges, killed by a methane explosion in the Pike River Mine on November 19, 2010.
It’s the families of those men who pushed for the Paparoa Track to be built – as a tribute, a thank you, and a new future. The hope is for something positive out of tragedy.
Those building the track feel that responsibility, and it guides what they do in the mountains.
Newest great walk
The $10 million track will span 55 kilometres of pristine wilderness in the Paparoa mountain range, linking the villages of Blackball and Punakaiki. About 10km of existing track is being used, pulled from the Croesus trail in the south and Pororari River Track at the north end, but the bulk will be newly built.
Another 10km of trail from the Pike River valley will join the great walk near its halfway point. Named the Pike29 Memorial Trail, it’s being built in memory of those who lost their lives in the Pike River Mine disaster. Some of the mine buildings near the start of the trail will be turned into an interpretation centre which explains the Pike River Mine tragedy.
The Department of Conservation (DOC) has given the track Great Walk status, marking it as one of the premier outdoor experiences in the country. It’s the first track added to the great walk network since it was set up in 1993, and the first to be built with both walkers and mountain bikers in mind. Two new 20-bunk huts will offer welcome refuge for trail users.
DOC aims to have the track open in April, though access to the Pike29 Memorial Trail will be barred until the Pike River Recovery Agency finishes its work to re-enter the mine. Three options to re-enter the mine have been developed, costing up to $35m, which the Government signed off on Thursday. Re-entry could start at the end of the year.
Jim McIlraith describes the pristine area as ‘‘a jewel in the crown’’ of DOC land. McIlraith is a project manager for the West Reef construction crew based out of the new Pororari Hut – ‘‘spiritually halfway in our journey to the completion of our section’’.
Battling torrential rain, gales
Since last August, McIlraith and his team have been working through lush native forest on a section of trail running from the Pororari River Basin to about the halfway point, facing baking sun, gale force winds and torrential rain – Paparoa National Park averages 6000 millimetres of rain a year.
A veteran of the Old Ghost Road build, McIlraith has been building tracks in remote corners of the West Coast for seven years. He says it takes a certain mindset to do this type of work, which is remote, physical and can be hazardous.
Some on McIlraith’s crew used to work in the mine and were friends with some who lost their lives in the disaster. For them the job is personal, and they feel they are part of something unique and powerful.
‘‘The most rewarding part of it is actually the fact that we are privileged to be part of that, we’re privileged to be the construction teams out here, charged with this responsibility. We feel that, we live that, we breathe that.’’
Painstaking work
Their role involves clearing fallen trees using chainsaws, before a small digger comes through and forms the rough track. Workers then come through with hand tools and shape the trail to make sure the camber works for walkers, bikers and drainage requirements, before replanting shrubbery around the edges.
But building such a trail is technical work – it’s not a ‘cowboys in the bush’ type of situation – with preparation and planning key. The main focus is working safely so workers ‘‘go home at the end of the day without a scratch’’, McIlraith says.
The route has been mapped out by a small team lead by well-known trail designer Hamish Seaton. Choosing the best course involved months of walking in the hills
before Seaton carefully constructed a detailed 3D digital map of the area.
DOC Paparoa Track project director Tom Hopkins says the track will take in a wide range of terrain and environments. From Blackball, it climbs through some ‘‘really nice mixed beech podocarp forest’’ before emerging into the alpine tussock of some classic South Island tops country, but with a view of the ocean.
‘‘So you’re cruising along the tops and you’ve got the Tasman Sea down there, and then you’ve got the Southern Alps in the other direction and behind you Mt Cook, on a good day.’’
Crossing the Pike Stream headwaters, it moves into an area with leached soils and big sandstone cliffs, before dropping down a ridge and back into the beech forest. The final stretch, along the Pororari River basin, is Jurassic Park country, taking users through the limestone gorges and nikau palms familiar to Punakaiki.
Home to kiwi, kea, ka¯ ka¯
Over in the Pike River valley, the Pike29 Memorial Track runs through some of the best old growth forest on the coast. The valley is home to quintessential New Zealand wildlife; kea and ka¯ ka¯ watch from the canopies while whio (blue duck) navigate the icy waters of the river. At night, the cry of the kiwi echoes off the hills.
Tom Woodward is part of another group working on the track, the Nelmac team. Two crews of three spend alternate weeks on the trail, living out of the Pike River Mine buildings – though they will move to a camp on the hills as work progresses.
He says a huge effort has gone into weaving the trail around the trees and getting it to flow through the forest so it’s ‘‘not a highway through the bush’’. Even the native ferns are carefully pulled out before the digger comes through, then replanted on the track’s fringes.
Their gentle care means the track very quickly looks like it belongs in this precious landscape.
‘‘I think we’re all quite proud to be part of it and we’re looking forward to having it finished and seeing what the reaction is,’’ Woodward says.
The crew often think and talk about the men who remain in the mine – those they are building the track for.
‘‘When we come in we stop down at the bottom at the memorial ... we always get out and have a look at the names and the photos that are down there.’’
Hopkins says the families have been heavily involved in the project from the start.
‘‘We’re working very hard to deliver their vision for what this track was intended to be, and that’s front of mind the whole time.’’