News and media

Pirongia opening

• 16 Dec 2009

On the day of the opening, the mist bagged the summit. Then it bagged the whole mountain. By 12.30 pm the whole solemn pile had vanished, and the cloud ceiling was still descending so that the choppers were forced off even the low-level Corcoran Road helipad. They rose and fell away backwards, their single headlights shining upwards into the mist.

The plan had been to chopper the college students who’d built Pirongia’s summit boardwalk back up to the mountaintop, with media, and Prime Minister John Key. They’d inspect the finished boardwalk. 

But the boardwalk, while the most spectacular construction section, was just a 800 metre part of a new 18-kilometre traverse of the mountain, and there’d always been a second event to take place after the summit inspection – the actual track opening ceremony at Kaniwhaniwha Camp.

                                                                                                                  Pic: Miriam Beatson 

At 2.30 pm a Eurocopter picked up the PM from Mallow Mansion on the outskirts of Hamilton and flew him in under a low cloud ceiling to a welcome at Kaniwhaniwha Camp from elders of Purekireki Marae.

After tea with water boiled by thermettes, after the smell of woodsmoke, after shelter under dripping canvas, after meeting with the college students and inspecting the noticeboard photographs of the 4-year Pirongia project, the PM walked to the small glade where Te Araroa’s new Pirongia Traverse begins.

                                                Pic:  Mark Taylor - Waikato Times

The Kaniwhaniwha Stream bubbled alongside. The mist was down and the trees ghosted. The muffled glade absorbed the speeches, a tui sang, and thus the mountain set its mark on the PM. He planted a cabbage tree and declared the new track open.

Te Araroa Trust, Te Araroa Waikato Trust, Nga Marae o te Maunga, and the Waikato Conservancy of the Department of Conservation all worked hard on this opening. Right up to the day of the opening, on December 11th, they worked with great energy and optimism for a fine day.   Then the patupaiarehe, those mountain spirits who take charge when things lose shape and outline in the human world gave the opening its final touch. A whiteout. Very cool.

Thanks also to pupils and former pupils of Cambridge High School; Church College of New Zealand; Hamilton Boys’ High School; Hillcrest High School; Huntly College; Ngaruawahia High School; St Paul’s Collegiate, Hamilton; Te Awamutu College.

Thanks to John Arthur for use of his farm to store the timber and later the prefab boardwalk units which were lifted to the summit ridge. Thanks to Walkwayz Solutions. 

For funding and help in kind,  thanks to Perry Foundation/Castle Trust; The Tindall Foundation; Trust Waikato; WEL Energy Trust; SKYCITY Hamilton Community Trust; Mayors Taskforce For Jobs; The Lotteries Commission; Environment Waikato; Gallagher Trust; Frame Group Ltd; Helicorp; Heliworx Waikato; Vela Group; RNZAF No 3 Squadron.