Plans for a cantilevered walkway at a fragile national park site have finally been scrapped. David Williams reports
To some, it seemed like madness. Hubris, even.
A $6 million upgrade for a little-visited, fragile area of the South Island’s West Coast included plans for a purpose-built, 65m-long walkway to be bolted into an almost vertical section of limestone river bank, about 6m above swirling, whisky-coloured waters.
A 15m-long bridge would be built to access it, over an area used by roosting whio, the nationally vulnerable, native blue duck.
These were just two new structures proposed to improve safety and the “visitor experience” in the Ōpārara Basin, a quiet corner of the Kahurangi National Park known for its high biodiversity values. (The existing track is near a high-risk rockfall zone, and a nationally critical moss.)
The Department of Conservation occupied a strange, meat-in-the-sandwich role of project-managing an economic development project, chiefly funded by a $5.7 million Provincial Growth Fund grant.
For years, critics like Federated Mountain Clubs and Forest & Bird told DoC the cantilevered walkway would be an intrusive structure in a national park, breaching specific plans and policies. But, fundamentally, the department was told to scrap it because the rock face was unstable.
(Later, the former Conservation Minister, Eugenie Sage, who intervened and ordered a review of the project, called the walkway an “extravagance”.)
Yet the department soldiered on, under the weight of public money yet to be spent, and the enticement of increased tourism.
Now, DoC has admitted defeat.
“Following receipt of a detailed geotechnical report for the elevated boardwalk, it was decided not to go ahead with the structure,” says Mark Davies, DoC’s director of operations for Tai Poutini/Western South Island, in an Official Information Act response.
The geotechnical report, completed in May by England and Company, of Wakefield, near Nelson, said: “The rock on the north-eastern face of the limestone bluff overlooking the Ōpārara River consists of “poor” quality rock … with karst structures (subsurface void spaces) visible in the immediate vicinity of the proposed gantry anchor points.”
In other words, the rock face was unstable.
Before the pin was pulled on the walkway, about $62,000 was spent on various assessments and work, including on what Davies describes as “minimal vegetation clearance to access the site”. The clearance is estimated to be at least 80 metres long, and three-to-four metres deep.
Jan Finlayson, president of recreation group Federated Mountain Clubs (FMC), is dumbfounded by the needlessness.
“That limestone bluff was too soft to ever hold a cantilevered walkway,” she says, comparing the vegetation clearance to other DoC blunders in national parks – the Truman Track blasting, and the Arthur’s Pass “tree massacre”.
“It was utterly unnecessary to do that. It was inimical to the national park ethos. It should be of concern to all New Zealanders that it was their own Department of Conservation that perpetrated it.”
The Ōpārara project is changing in other ways because of cost-overruns, some related to delays caused by Covid-19 lockdowns.
Francois Tumahai, chairman of Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Waewae and a West Coast Tai Poutini Conservation Board member, says via email: “Ngāti Waewae is in support of the programme and changes.”
The plan was years in the making.
In 2016, Tourism West Coast identified the Ōpārara Basin as one of six world-class “icon attractions” which featured in the following year’s economic development action plan.
The development project’s feasibility study and business case, paid for by the Business Ministry (MBIE) and Development West Coast, was finalised in July 2018.
Four months later, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced a $140 million windfall for the West Coast, including $5.7 million for the Ōpārara development. Another $332,000 came from two grants secured by the Ōpārara Valley Trust, which runs guided walks in the area.
The Ōpārara became the star attraction of a new marketing campaign by Tourism West Coast aimed at drawing more visitors for longer stays to the northern West Coast.
DoC seemed under pressure from most sides to follow through – although recreational and conservation groups lobbied against the project, worried economic interests were trumping environmental ones.
Slowly but surely, the more egregious elements were excised. From the initial vision, a suspended walkway through the Ōpārara Arch, and a $2 million research and education facility were dropped. Later, a removable stairway at Moria Gate was scrapped in favour of in-ground, natural steps.
But DoC pushed stubbornly ahead with the cantilevered walkway.
A rudimentary landscape assessment, based on sketches of the proposed structure, said it wouldn’t be visually dominant, and a “curved, organic” shape, and “softened” colour choice, would make it more complimentary to the natural environment.
However, questions were raised in the accompanying assessment of environmental effects report, completed in July last year. It said the walkway’s visual impact would be the most significant of any other project component, and a geotechnical assessment was needed to be sure it was feasible.
The alternative – the far better choice, according to critics – was to widen the existing track and install a safety barrier.
As mentioned, Sage stepped in, ordering a review, and, after weighing alternatives, DoC’s Tai Poutini boss Davies approved the walkway. This was last October, before the geotechnical assessment was done.
Davies’ report went to DoC deputy director-general of operations Mike Slater, a former West Coast conservator, who endorsed the plan in a report which spruiked the “significantly improved” visitor experience, and “better views of the river”. That was a year ago, five days after Conservation Minister Kiri Allan was appointed.
A risk of “potential falling debris” from above the walkway was identified in Slater’s report, yet the safety risk rating was put at “low”. Similarly, the landscape and visual amenity impact was listed as “moderate-low” to “low”.
All this within a valley that’s home to the largest limestone arch in Australasia, an internationally recognised cave system, as well as rare and threatened plants and animals. The Basin only attracts about 10,000 visitors a year.
Was the bluff above the Ōpārara River stripped of vegetation in anticipation of the walkway being built?
DoC boss Davies says the “minimal” vegetation clearance was required to enable the geotechnical and engineering design investigations. “No limestone was damaged during this work,” he says. “All work undertaken was completed around the Kahurangi National Park values with impact assessments completed against the statutory documents.”
Finlayson, of FMC, has a different view. She calls it a fool’s errand, trying to marry “urban-style pleasure-tripping” with wilderness.
“The clearance itself is like a surgeon killing a patient for an examination that shows no operation is needed.”DoC is now finalising a new concept for upgrading the Ōpārara Arch Track. One wonders how closely it will align with the alternative suggested by critics: widening the existing track and installing a safety barrier.
The day after DoC sent its official information response to Newsroom, it issued a press release extolling the virtues of its improvements at Ōpārara, including a new viewing platform at Mirror Tarn.
Other completed work include a flush toilet at the Box Canyon carpark, new video surveillance of the Honeycomb Caves, and track improvements.
Next year, new interpretation panels will showcase the connection of mana whenua to the area, and work will start on road safety improvements and the Ōparara Arch Track.
In the release, DoC’s Buller operations manager Suvi van Smit reinforced work had focused on improving safety and access for visitors while “protecting the highly sensitive environment”.
“The result, while not as disrespectful of that national park ethos as it would have been in its initial iteration, remains disrespectful.” – Jan Finlayson
Davies’ official information response adds important context.
The scope of work on the road has been reduced “due to additional costs identified during the detailed planning and detailed design stage”. About $2.6 million will now be spent upgrading the 16km access road, McCallums Mill Rd, $1.4 million less than originally forecast.
What’s eaten into that budget is construction work on the Ōpārara Arch Track, Moria Gate steps, and the Mirror Tarn loop track and viewing platform – which, collectively, is estimated to be $800,000 over budget at $1.78 million. Development costs, including project management and expert assessments, and “time impacts from Covid” is now expected to cost $1.07 million, more than double the original estimate.
Originally, work on the road was expected to consume two-thirds of the $6 million. That was deliberate. In May 2019, the project’s costs were re-jigged by Government ministers to spend more on the road, following a “substantial reduction” on tourism infrastructure. In this latest forecast, roadwork will be 43 percent of the project’s total.
“The revised scope will achieve an improved road for visitor safety and weather resilience that remediates outstanding environmental issues,” Davies says.
The project is expected to be finished by December next year, but DoC is giving itself some wiggle room. Davies says the road upgrade tender isn’t completed and the work programme is yet to be approved. “The completion date is yet to be confirmed.”
Jo Birnie, Development West Coast’s economic development manager, says via email DoC has assured the safety of road-users won't be affected by the budget cuts.
“In terms of the completion date, the unfortunate reality is the Covid-19 pandemic has led to delays and increased delivery costs for most projects. Given the circumstances, DWC is happy with the progress being made.
“The Ōpārara basin is a remarkable area of immense national and international significance. It's important that the works are done to the highest standard possible and we support the approach DoC is taking.”
Finlayson, of FMC, believes wider issues are at play.
The “litany of failures” in the Ōpārara are symptomatic of what she calls “non-concessionaire, third-party concepts” which aren’t motivated purely by conservation, and tend to duck public involvement and the usual statutory benchmarks.
Other examples she mentions are the DoC-commissioned Stafford proposal for visitor growth at Arthur’s Pass, and the Milford Opportunities project. Finlayson wrote to Conservation Minister Kiri Allan in September calling for these two projects to be scrapped.
Much to her chagrin, the Ōpārara project is well advanced.
Finlayson says the Ōpārara advisory group, of which FMC is a member, has managed to chip away at the “rough edges” of the initial concept. But it has been five hard years of slog.
“And the result, while not as disrespectful of that national park ethos as it would have been in its initial iteration, remains disrespectful. It makes me sad.”
