Source: Radio New Zealand
Harwoods Hole on Takaka Hill Supplied – Department of Conservation
The Department of Conservation (DOC) has u-turned on its closure of the track to the country’s deepest natural sinkhole.
Harwoods Hole, which is a nearly 180-metre deep vertical shaft, is part of a cave system in the Abel Tasman National Park.
It’s estimated that up to 4000 people use the track each year.
The Department of Conservation closed the track to the site last month, citing safety risks. It warned that the area around Harwoods Hole has unstable rock and significant fall hazards, where slipping could be fatal.
It caused public backlash, with a collective of recreational groups claiming shutting the track was illegal and threatened legal action if DOC did not take down any material saying the track was shut.
DOC has since said it will no longer be providing a marked track to Harwoods Hole or promoting it as a managed visitor site.
DOC Golden Bay operations manager Ross Trotter said on Friday the department has updated wording on its website and will be updating the temporary signage to reflect this.
“We’ve taken these steps because the experience being offered at this site, including the hazards, and the type of visitor it was appealing to, did not match,” Trotter said.
He said people can still access the area at their own risk. However, DOC will not be actively managing visitor access or mitigating natural hazards at the site.
“Heavy promotion on social media and by third parties has set unrealistic expectations and implies viewing of Harwoods Hole from the track is possible, but it’s not. It’s not possible to look down Harwoods Hole from the top of the hole, as it flares out at the top entrance, or from anywhere on the track,” Trotter said.
“We appreciate that some people feel strongly about this place, but our first responsibility is ensuring visitors understand and can safely manage the risks involved.”
Federated Mountain Clubs of New Zealand president Megan Dimozantos said she received an email from DOC on Friday afternoon to confirm that the track is not closed, but that it will no longer be maintained.
“It’s all about words,” she told Checkpoint. “The use of the word closed has a different legal implication to the use of the words no longer maintained.”
Dimozantos said Section 13 of the Conservation Act only allows for closures of public conservation land where there is an emergency or inherent public risk.
“Obviously, this didn’t meet that very high threshold and we appreciate DOC taking measures to rectify the communication of the situation.”
Dimozantos believes there was an element of safety overreach.
“DOC’s role is not to wrap our public in cotton wool. It is to inform the public of what the risks might be at a particular site and allow the public to make their own decisions about whether they’d like to proceed or not.”
Dimozantos said the case has highlighted a number of other sites where similar “inappropriate” closures are in place.
The group is currently collating that information from the public and will address that with DOC as a separate matter.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
