Cutting off beach access at the end of a popular West Coast walk is frustrating a tourist operator. David Williams reports
The folly of blasting a 70-tonne sandstone rock overhang in a West Coast national park is now clearer.
Two years ago, after a sandstone block sheared off near a viewing platform on the Truman Track, part of the Paparoa National Park, the overhang was removed using explosives, on the advice of a consultant geologist.
It led to accusations of the Department of Conservation (DoC) having a “blast now and think later approach”.
Valid questions were also raised about prioritising tourism over nature, and whether it was appropriate for Truman Track walkers to get access to a dangerous beach known for rogue waves.
A review found multiple failures leading up to that decision, and a re-think of the department’s visitor risk management system.
Now, the department confirms its staff discovered two sandstone blocks fell from the eastern end of the “remediated” overhang on June 28 this year. A barrier was installed and a warning sign erected on the viewing platform, which normally leads to a smaller platform and the beach. An alert was also placed on DoC’s website.
A geotechnical assessment was done in July but the barrier is still there almost five months later, as the tourism-reliant West Coast heads into peak season.
Given the publicity from the 2019 blasting, is the department being over-cautious? Or is it re-thinking the wisdom of sending inexperienced visitors to a dangerous beach?
The coastline is renowned for its crumbling caves and cliffs. Perhaps DoC now realises if it starts blasting sandstone seen as a potential threat to visitors it may never stop.
Truman Track, about 2km north of Punakaiki and 45km north of Greymouth, is one of the most popular West Coast walks, which attracted about 37,000 visitors a year, pre-Covid. (Last summer season, despite the international borders being closed, it still attracted 19,000 visitors.)
From State Highway 6, it’s an easy 15-minute lope to the beach – which features a waterfall and blowhole.
James Oats bought Te Nikau Retreat, an accommodation business located next to the track, just weeks before the country’s Covid-related national lockdown in March last year.
He worries guests will be put off if there’s no beach access.
While there’s been no official announcement, Oats says the local DoC office told him the decision had been made to close access to the beach indefinitely.
“I thought that they would make an effort to open it,” says Oats, who runs Te Nikau with partner Tami Krehan. “We get a lot of guests here that come here and say, well, we wanted to walk down to that beach, it’s a bit of a pain that you can’t go down there. Now that’s indefinite, it’s ridiculous.”
A paper petition to re-open beach access sits behind the counter at DoC’s Punakaiki office.
It wasn’t a great idea to blast the overhang in the first place, Oats says, “but then they’ve gone and blocked it off anyway, so what was the point?”.
“It’s a cop-out. Perhaps they think by closing it permanently they don’t have to deal with any problems?”
“The intention has always been to seek a safe way of re-opening the track.” – Suvi Van Smit
In a statement, DoC’s Buller operations manager Suvi Van Smit says the beach is not closed – although it’s a moot point if its only access is closed.
“The intention has always been to seek a safe way of re-opening the track, as quickly as possible, with the least environmental impact possible.”
Specialist geotechnical advice after the 2019 rockfall revealed water seepage and cracks in the underlying sandstone. Even after the removal of the 70-tonne overhang, the advice said further rockfall might occur.
An assessment after the incident in June this year found an unsupported one-tonne rock perched above the track leading to the lower platform and beach.
“The advice from the assessor was that the risk of rockfall has increased and that when the rock falls it may be deflected onto the track,” Van Smit says. The lower track should remain closed until the residual rockfall risk was reduced, the geotechnical advice said.
An archaeological assessment, completed in October, found removing the overhanging rock would have limited additional impact on the archaeological deposit, and no additional authority was required from Heritage New Zealand.
Why the wait? It has been suggested the block’s removal could be done with hand tools.
DoC’s is still considering how to mitigate the rockfall risk. Western South Island operations director Mark Davies said yesterday the decision will be made next year. (He clarified the closure was “of this section of the track only, not that portion of the national park”.)
The review sparked by the 2019 blasting suggested improvements such as “ensuring visitor risk management principles are applied, seeking geological and/or archaeological advice and consulting with Iwi and stakeholders”. “This takes time,” Van Smit says.
Asked if the dangers of the beach played any part in not re-opening access to the beach, she says: “DoC has considered all aspects of the lower part of the Truman Track in assessing what to do next.”
It was Jan Finlayson, president of Federated Mountain Clubs, who, two years ago, accused DoC of having a “blast now, think later” approach.
She says FMC has recommended the one-tonne block not be removed and the level of visitor infrastructure at Truman Track be scaled back.
The beach is a dangerous place for people without the right judgment, Finlayson maintains. The tourism infrastructure beckons people who lack that judgment – a situation she describes as “unmarriageable”.
Given the overhang blasting, further rockfalls were self-fulfilling, she says, and they’ll continue to be so if “front-country tourism” continues to be allowed there.
By law, conservation is the department’s top priority, followed by fostering recreation and allowing tourism. In the past, DoC’s priorities have been the wrong way around, Finlayson says.
“It’s now facing the realities of that.”
So is Oats, who, a few weeks back, said Te Nikau Retreat was as dead as a doornail. But he added: “The summer itself, from just before Christmas right through, is looking pretty good at this point.”
Oats, a former dairy farmer, describes the Truman Track situation as “one big load of crap”.
“It’s not particularly fair on us or a lot of people in the local vicinity that like to walk down to that beach. It’s a problem because there’s no other access to that beach – you can’t get there without going down those stairs.”
