Latest news with #MidwestHelicopters
Scoop
5 days ago
- Scoop
Te Hangāruru Cycle Trail: Key Section In Mountains To Sea Ride Opens In June
Trail builders are three weeks away from opening the newest section of the Mountains to Sea – Ngā Ara Tūhono Great Ride cycle trail. When complete, the 29.4km Te Hangāruru Cycle Trail will deliver the infamous 'missing link' in a multi-day adventure ride, starting on the volcanic slopes of Mt Ruapehu and ending at the Tasman Sea in Whanganui. Iwi collective Te Korowai o Wainuiārua is working with the Ruapehu District Council and other stakeholders in the central North Island to build the trail connecting Waimarino (formerly National Park village) to Horopito, and eventually to Pōkākā. Trail manager Lynley Twyman said construction of this section began in October 2023 and was being built in stages as funding came in. Te Hangāruru will feature boardwalks, 17 bridges and four suspension bridges over a track through subalpine landscape, including podocarp forests. The country's longest suspension bridge, stretching 200 meters across the Makatote River, will be built in a later stage of the project. Earlier this month, teams from Midwest Helicopters, Abseil Access and Impel 2010 installed a 30m suspension bridge over the Mangaturuturu River, and trail builders are working now on completing the approaches. Another 99m suspension bridge will be built over the Manganui-o-te-Ao in the next phase of works, and an underpass under the Main Trunk Line, just north of Pōkākā, is under construction. 'Once complete, this trail will be another jewel for the Ruapehu community and an unforgettable ride or walk for adventurers across Aotearoa,' Twyman said. Ngā Ara Tūhono Charitable Trust, which oversees the trail, is seeking final funding for the last phases of the trail. 'But we're building everything we can now, with the resources we have,' Twyman said. The Trust is chaired by Whanganui mayor Andrew Tripe. Members include Ruapehu mayor Weston Kirton, Tūpoho iwi representative Chris Kumeroa, Ngāti Rangi's Ngā Waihua o Paerangi pouārahi Helen Leahy, Te Korowai o Wainuiārua chair Aiden Gilbert, Whanganui Māori tourism representative Hayden Potaka, and Whanganui District Council representative Rory Smith. The completed Mountains to Sea trail will offer more than 320km of connected trails, including stretches through two national parks and alongside the Whanganui River. It will become one of the 23 Great Rides of the New Zealand Cycle Trail, Ngā Haerenga. The first 9km of Te Hangāruru – 'a fabulous piece of track' – will open on June 19. The Trust is calling for community volunteers to pitch in from 10am on Sunday, 1 June, to plant 800 locally sourced native trees and shrubs around the Horopito trail head, opposite Horopito Motors (also known as Smash Palace). The planting is part of a rehabilitation project for land that was returned to Te Korowai o Wainuiārua by the Crown earlier this month under treaty settlement. 'It was covered in rubbish and pest plants like gorse, broom and blackberry. It has been cleaned up with care – now it's our turn to give back,' Twyman said. 'This planting is all about rehabilitating the whenua, making sure we're contributing back to the environment and our people. 'The community keeps asking how they can help – this is how. Bring your spade, scissors, boots and lunch, and get stuck in.' Twyman said Te Hangāruru gives riders a front-row seat to 'seriously stunning central plateau scenery'. 'You'll cruise through native forest, alongside relics from early timber milling days, and beautiful farmland.' Towering above the landscape is Hauhungatahi, at 1521 meters one of New Zealand's tallest volcanoes. 'What makes it truly unique is that it's built atop an upfaulted block of ancient mesozoic marine sediment – rock that once sat on the seafloor,' Twyman said. 'The lava that formed Hauhungatahi erupted around 900,000 years ago, making it more than three times as old as Mt Ruapehu.' The completed trail will feature an 18km section of the historic Marton Sash and Door tramway route, built in the 1920s for locomotives to take logs from Waimarino and Ngātokoerua to the town of Marton, south of the plateau.
RNZ News
25-05-2025
- RNZ News
High-spec Pouakai Hut replacement built to withstand 300km/h winds
The unique challenges of building in the sub-alpine environment has meant everything including the kitchen sink - four times over - has had to be helicoptered into the Pouākai Hut rebuild site in Te Papakurua o Taranaki - the region's national park. The new 300sqm, 36-bunk building is replacing a hut half its size, which was built in 1981 and could no longer cope with traffic to the popular Pouākai Tarns. The new Pouākai Hut sits 1190m above sea level and has 36 bunks. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin The new Pouākai Hut. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin Midwest Helicopters' pilot, Mark Gilmer, has been running regular four-minute shuttles from Mangorei Road to the Pouākai Hut in his Hughes 500 over the past six months. The Stratford local, who had experience flying in Fiji and Papua New Guinea, had flown everything imaginable up to the construction site. "A lot of timber, some steel framing, things like that. Flying all the windows up, the kitchen sinks. Yeah a bit of everything and anything really and also flying the contractors up there. He said the biggest challenge had been the fickle weather conditions and nailing equipment drops. "It's just being precise with your loads and landing them on the deck pretty close to the building, so obviously making sure you are in control of that load." Lead contractor Micheal Johns says it's been a challenging but rewarding job. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin Lead contractor Michael Johns, and his team, had been on site since November. "We started with the demolition of the old Pouākai Hut which we pulled down bit by bit and had to fly all that out and then flying all the materials back up to start the new build which we've worked on right through from one end to the other to give us a bit of area to be able land materials because there's not a lot of flat land up here." Johns said some loads were trickier than others. "Well you've just seen today the sink benches nice big things that fly like bat wings. We've had a few of those come up. A couple of diggers were flown up here, so we got a 1.7 tonne digger flown in that put in all the screw piles for us and lots of timber and roofing iron." Contractors have stayed on the mountain over the past six months. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin It had been a unique experience for his crew who stayed on the mountain for several days at a time. "Certainly we're right on that sub-alpine, so the temperature can drop on you pretty quick up here. Otherwise you get beautiful days and lots of people coming past. "You can spot the locals because the locals are really interested in what's going on up here and they all want to come up and stay and you can see all the tourists going past heading through to the tarns looking for the hut that isn't here any more." Department of Conservation project manager, Wayne Boness, says the $2.4 million hut, designed in collaboration with Ngā Mahanga a Tairi hapu, would be a far cry from its predecessor. "The hut will sleep 34 public and we've got a two bed wardens' quarters as well with its own kitchen. There's four bunkrooms, so they're split into three nines and a seven and then there's a common cooking dining area and this big day-visitor deck because as well as people coming to stay at the hut you've got a large amount of people passing through visiting the tarns." DOC project manager Wayne Boness says the new hut has been built to withstand 300kmh winds. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin The building was actually in two separate buildings part to account for wind pressures. "We are in an environment where we get, you know, 300kmh winds, snow loads, so the real extremes of temperature. When it rains up here the rains doesn't just fall straight down normally it's wind driven so it's coming sideways and up hill at you and things like that." The hut would have solar power, heating in the common room and ceiling, wall and underfloor insulation. Boness said crucially it would have four toilets compared to its predecessor's two. They would have expanded storage capacity reducing the number of helicopter flights required to empty them and two would be positioned for the use of day walkers and the other two for people staying overnight. Trampers making their way to the famous Pouākai tarns or mountain lakes were excited about the new hut. .New Plymouth friends Lee-Anne and David thought the new hut would be a great improvement Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin New Plymouth local David Officer was a fan. "From what I've heard it sounds awesome. It sounds like it would be great now to come and stay overnight instead of doing this just as a day hike." His friend Lee-anne Alcantara could see the upside to bunkrooms separate from the common areas. "I remember the old hut was well a bit old and having done overnights before if you're trying to sleep earlier it can get a bit rowdy in the living area." Polish visitor Maria was not so keen. "I prefer my trails with a little people as possible so probably not. I think it's a nice day trek and I don't think you necessarily need a bigger place to stay." Polish visitor Maria wasn't sure a larger hut was required while her travel companion Frederick of Finland thought it would be great to have somewhere to rest. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin But travel companion Frederick of Finland could imagine something even more grand. "It's definitely a positive to have a place to rest. I know that in a lot of huts in the Dolomites they'll have ice beer along the way so there's definitely positives to that as well, but I don't know if this place will have a cafe as well." Weather conditions permitting the new Pouākai Hut was expected to open to the public in June. The new hut has 34 public bunks and a two bed wardens' quarters. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin The new Pouākai Hut. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin A tourist posing for an Instagram shot at the Tarns. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
