News and media
Mastery over mud
Seven schools in the Waikato area are prefabricating a kilometre-long boardwalk to take trampers west of Pahautea Hut to Hihikiwi summit.
The Department of Conservation made it a condition of allowing Te Araroa to use an old DoC track down the western flank of Pirongia mountain that the muddy section between Pahautea Hut and Hihikiwi summit must first be boardwalked. It's a huge task, involving expensive helicopter lifts of both workers and materials.
Te Araroa Waikato Trust, supported by some funding from Te Araroa Trust, raised $100,000 for the project and last year 3 high school teams camped out at Pahautea Hut to put in the first 80 metres of board walk. The work was slow, hard, and the chopper lifts of students and materials onto the site were expensive.
As a result of the slow progress last year we revised our method. DoC helped produce a baseline survey of the route to establish an accurate profile, and with engineering help from Frame Group we designed the remaining 900 metres of boardwalk in prefabricated units.
Te Araroa's construction manager, Noel Sandford, set local schools to work on these prefab sections, and is presently supervising that work. 12th-year carpentry students from Huntly College, Ngaruawahia High School, St Paul's Collegiate, Mormon Church College of NZ, Te Awamutu College, Hillcrest High School and Hamilton Boys College are all building steps, handrails and flat sections. The work is part of their assessment for NCEA, and these students have become an integral part of Te Araroa itself. Te Araroa Waikato Trust, and Te Araroa Trust, thanks them, and their teachers.
The plan now is to truck the prefabs to a farm high on the Pirongia slopes by year's end. During the dry month of February 2007, helicopters will then lift these prefab sections to the tops, and gangs will assemble them on-site. It's difficult work, and expensive - the budget is presently set at $275,000. Any help with funding is appreciated. Ring either Margaret Evans, chair of Te Araroa Waikato Trust, 021 986 658 or Geoff Chapple, CEO of Te Araroa Trust, 021 664 665.
Caption: Charmaine Hopa (front) and Nicole Fitzsimmons router out the stringers for Pirongia steps at Ngaruawahia High School.
Finished steps, complete with properly angled handrail, built by students at Huntly College
