Track officially opened – Rotarians step up, so Sir Bill steps forward
Sir Bill English has briefly emerged from a carefully lowered profile to help draw the spotlight to a scarcelyknown Southland attraction.
The 24.5m Makarewa Falls, reportedly the highest in lowland Southland, and the pretty Staircase Falls have long been celebrated by Hokonui area locals, but access difficulty kept their profile largely under the radar.
Now a labour of love and perspiration from a handful of Winton Rotary Club members has opened them up, via a blazed trail offering a steepish six hour return walk, which the former Prime Minister and Finance Minister officially opened yesterday.
Sir Bill, who hails from nearby Dipton West, said he was the same as about 90 per cent of people who lived within 50km of the falls but didn’t really know about them.
‘‘When you think about it, it’s ridiculous,’’ he said.
He and wife Mary had walked the trail at Easter and were ready to attest to the beauty and impressiveness of the experience.
‘‘I think a lot of people will want to walk it – once they know it’s there,’’ he said.
He particularly wanted to thank whoever has schlepped an aluminium ladder on to the trail at the very point where it was most needed, though he advocated a few more markers for the return journey, otherwise ‘‘if you find some skeletons in there’’ you’d know why.
Sir Bill commended DOC senior ranger Brent Affleck for pointing out that the trail was not on what was sometimes called ‘‘DOC-owned’’ land but was public conservation land administered by the department.
The former PM said the land never was and never would be owned by the department, which simply had ‘‘the same privilege as us – to look after it’’.
Affleck said the department didn’t lightly enter into the sort of partnership it has formed with the Winton Rotary, but this group had been a proven performer in conservation volunteerism.
The trail is near Browns, and is off Mandeville Rd, which is off Hall Rd.
Southland District Mayor Gary Tong, having driven down the same gravel road three times trying to find it for the opening ceremony, acknowledged the council ‘‘needs to help you out with some signs’’.
Citing the Rotary club’s efforts, he stressed how often voluntary groups could get things done if they were just left alone to do it.
More than 600 hours voluntary work had been put in by a handful of Rotarians but club member and local farmer Lindsay Middleton, who has allowed access through his property to the loop track, said it had at times needed two hours walk for the volunteers to get into the area where they could resume work, and another two hours to leave afterwards.
This made for quite a long day. ‘‘It didn’t do us any harm,’’ he added.
When the time came to cut the ribbon, Sir Bill said it had been so long since he opened something ‘‘I’m not sure I know how to do it any more.’’
Then he called on three local four-year-olds, Alex Wylie, Callum McKenzie and Austin Gill, to help him out.
Sir Bill has resolutely kept his profile in check since leaving politics, venturing only occasionally into the attentions of the news media.
Recently though, he was among present and former Prime Ministers at the recent national service for the late Prince Philip, gave an off-therecord address at Victoria University, and was interviewed by the interest.co.nz site on the theme of governments being too reliant on central banks and setting too many targets for them.
Generally, however, the famed finance minister has been nothing if not economical with his thoughts and at the track opening he cheerfully but emphatically rebuffed a requested interview about his own activities, lifestyle and viewpoints of late.
Meanwhile, just a few metres away, a rather more heartfelt request was also being turned aside. Four-year-old Alex had been persuaded by the grown-up talk and was just busting to start walking the track then and there, making the case as strongly as he could to mum Nicola.
When you’re just a bit older, she told him.