Windy Tops

Tag: government policies

  • Terminal faces

    Radio New Zealand has the most detailed online report I can find about the coroner’s recommendations that follow the January 2009 accident where two Australian tourists died under the collapsing terminal face of Fox Glacier.

    The Coroner has recommended “restricted access” to the Fox, and possibly the Franz Joseph Glacier terminal faces, suggesting a new law and measures such as instant fines for people who get too close without a guide or some kind of official authorisation. So far the Department of Conservation has said it’ll consider the recommendations, but needs to discuss them with the Minister of Conservation. It’s already made changes to the signage, and worked with tourism operators to increase awareness with members of the public of the danger around glaciers.

    What this recommendation seems to be suggesting is that legal restrictions against approaching the terminal face of Fox Glacier, and possibly Franz Joseph Glacier, should be put in place because those parts of the New Zealand Conservation Estate have been made so accessible, and because many people (informed or not) hop the recommended safety barrier.

    It’s a terrible thing for all concerned when accidents like this occur, but I agree with Richard Davies, the President of Federated Mountain Clubs, who is strongly speaking out against what the coroner has asked for. Some of his comments are relayed through the first link at the top of this post. Richard is right when he points out that imposing legal restrictions for access would set a dangerous precedent. If such restrictions can be put around the terminal face of Fox Glacier, what’s to stop them from going elsewhere, and where does it stop? Would we see restrictions in something like walking up to the Crater Lake of Ruapehu, also popular with tourists, just in case the volcano burps again as it did in 2007? Why is it fair to issue fines to people who choose to take these kinds of risks, and how is that reliably enforced without missing scores of people acting silly for the wrong reasons, yet catching people who break the rules whilst being suitably careful?
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  • Commemorative feature naming and South Ridge

    I’m not too surprised that there’s reported resistance to renaming South Ridge on Aoraki Mount Cook to be Hillary Ridge. The official proposal and request for submissions by the New Zealand Geographic Board, complete with a report of considerations and policies on applying names, is viewable here.

    Ed Hillary did some awesome things, both in mountaineering and outside it. He held some strong viewpoints and didn’t hit it off with everyone, but he did much more with his life and influence than simply be in the first climbing team to reach the top of Everest. I think there’s little doubt that many people are much better off than they’d probably otherwise be. As for the naming of a feature after him, I’m not so sure.
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  • Skimming the Akatarawas

    Yesterday, being bright and sunny, I was looking for something to do, and thought I might attempt to find the proposed location of a new water catchment dam on the Whakatikei River in the Akatarawas. Such a dam is one of three options being put forward as part of the Wellington City Council’s Draft Water Conservation & Efficiency Plan, which is being consulted on until 15th October. The other two options are to make everyone install water meters to encourage everyone to use water more efficiently, or to live with periodic water shortages in the region.

    Unfortunately my plan didn’t work very well. I started with this great map (below) of the proposed dam site from page 28 of the plan’s PDF discussion document, and I think my admittedly slim knowledge of the Akatarawas didn’t help too much.


    Maybe they thought nobody would bother to go out and try to look for this proposed dam site.
    5046178315_1f1798b4a2_m-8383628
    Wainui Stream.

    From the map, I thought it looked as if the dam site was somewhere off the end of Bulls Run Road, a few kilometres off Provincial State Highway 58 between Pauatahanui and the Hutt Valley, so that’s where I started. The road’s nice, it ends in a gate followed by a short walk to an almost immediate stream crossing (not the Whakatikei — I think it’s the Wainui Stream). It’s actually a ford for vehicles, but still at least knee deep and today at least it was flowing quite fast, despite there not having been much rain for a day or three.
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  • Meridian, DoC and the Mokihinui River

    Just to add to some of happenings around the Mokihinui River (historic references: a trip report about walking it, a decision to allow damming it, and the Department of Conservation’s appeal to that decision), it looks as if there’s been a lot going on behind the scenes earlier this year.

    Claire Browning (over at Pundit) has made use of the Official Information Act to obtain communications between DoC and Meridian which make some weird reading. It’s an insight into how these large project applications can work. It gives an idea of the strong differences of opinion between DoC experts and Meridian over use of the land, and also shows Meridian as trying to evade the Official Information Act, essentially by trying to stop DoC from writing certain things down.

    More politics. I’m going back to the Ruahines this weekend. It should be fun.

  • Environmental externalities from Mining in New Zealand (unverified notes)

    With everything happening lately regarding opening up (or not) land listed in Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act to mining, and with me being someone who likes getting outdoors, I’ve been keen to find some vaguely objective information about effects of mining on the surrounding environment. On July 21st I went to a public presentation by Professor Dave Craw, of the Geology Department at Otago University, and the director of the Environmental Science programme there. It’s part of a series of winter lectures being hosted by Otago University in Auckland and Wellington. Given his background, Professor Craw seems to be in a good position to comment on the topic of mining in New Zealand with some scientific authority. He’s been cited in the news a few times on this topic (example 1, example 2).

    Later in this post, I’ve reproduced the notes I took during Professor Craw’s presentation. It’s not authoritative coming from me. As interested as I am in comprehending things on a level that transcends what’s most easily available through polarised press releases, I’m not a geologist and I’ve not been involved in New Zealand’s mining industry. My note-taking skills from a one hour public lecture are nothing compared with various other people’s years or decades of working with or researching this stuff, so please use these notes as an approximate guide only.
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  • Rising hut fees, the price of being honest

    I woke on Saturday morning to the Radio NZ news that back-country hut pass fees are to rise, or more to the point that they’ve already risen as of last Friday when the announcement was made. The base cost of annual hut passes rises from $90 to $120, and Great Walk Hut bookings (for those who use them) are also rising by $5 per night. The price of individual hut tickets (for those not using passes) stays the same at $5 each, although the Department of Conservation increased the number of tickets required to stay in many huts during mid-2008, when the “serviced hut” cost went from 2 tickets to 3 tickets per night.

    The story hasn’t made it far through the media, and most places where it’s visible show as a regurgitation of DoC’s press release pulled off the news-wire. One media organisation that investigated further was the New Zealand Herald, although the Herald’s story doesn’t offer much further information except to get a quote from a Mountain Safety Council representative who “welcomed the increase”. The article’s thin on detail about why the MSC welcomed the increase, just as it’s thin on why the MSC was consulted before organisations that more directly represent use of back-country huts (as opposed to outdoor safety) such as FMC, the NZ Alpine Club the NZ Deerstalkers, or any number of local outdoor recreation clubs for that matter.

    Hut fees were introduced in 1988 by the newly-founded Department of Conservation. They’ve taken time sink in, with many people early on finding it offensive for the government to effectively usurp facilities they’d helped to build, and then charge for their use. Chris MacLean’s Tararua history book quotes John Rundle during a 1991 taped conversation as follows:

    “I, with a lot of other people, have put a lot of voluntary time in cutting these tracks, building these huts — which DoC hasn’t done — going on searches, instructing schools, Scouts, Girl Guides and things like that — all voluntary. For them to come and ask me for a hut fee is an insult.”

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  • Mokihinui decision appealed

    Following from this decision, it’s interesting to read on Stuff that the Department of Conservation is now appealing the decision to allow damming of the Mokihinui River. (That’s the river we went for a walk along back during new year.) I assumed the decision would be appealed, but was more convinced the appeal would come from an organisation affiliated with the Wild Rivers campaign. [Update 22nd May 2012: Meridian has now withdrawn its project from the Environment Court and will not proceed.]

    Even if the appeal is turned down, the Minister of Conservation (Kate Wilkinson) still has to finally approve Meridian’s plans to dam the river because it happens to be on conservation land, and she would have to do so in the face of her main advising department giving strong advice about how bad-an-idea they think it is. On the other hand, Kate Wilkinson ordered a review into the advocacy role of her department a couple of months ago.

    Anyway, enough of this, politics is boring. I’m going tramping this weekend, or possibly swimming depending on how things go.

  • Mining on Schedule 4 Land submissions

    If you’re not in New Zealand, or if you’ve been living with your head buried in a sandbox for the last few months, you might not be aware that the NZ government’s been considering opening up sections of Schedule 4 land so they can be considered for mining applications. Schedule 4 is a section of the Crown Minerals Act which defines specific areas of New Zealand that can never be considered for mining due to very special conservation values. (In other words, it’s a sign saying “don’t even bother applying”.) It was designed as a compromise to clearly clarify where mining companies could and couldn’t apply to mine conservation land.

    Recent proposals by the current government to open up parts of schedule 4 land is is largely with mining interests in mind, and it probably has something to do with the spike in certain mineral values, such as Gold, in the last few years. It seems likely that such mining will actually go ahead sooner or later if certain targeted land is removed from Schedule 4. A variety of conservation, recreation and political groups (notably Forest and Bird, and Federated Mountain Clubs — the latter of which represents most tramping and outdoor clubs in New Zealand) have come out very strongly against the proposal, centred around a campaign titled 2precious2mine.

    4570586272_b582561ecc_m-1699074
    A Forest & Bird bus stop advertisement, corner
    of Bowen Street and The Terrace (Wellington).

    The Ministry of Economic Development is driving the push to open up parts of schedule 4, and (eventually) released a discussion paper after months of unclear speculation about exactly what was being considered. Public submissions on the document close at 5pm on Tuesday 4th May Wednesday 26th May (Update 13-5-2010: It’s been extended). Despite my feelings that a submission from myself would not make a real difference, I figured I’d feel much worse if I did nothing. At the very least, I suppose I can contribute to the count of people who cared enough about it add to the flood, and collectively that might help to demonstrate something. I visited the Submissions Page earlier this evening and made an online submission, which I’ve included the text of below.

    If you feel strongly about Schedule 4 (even if you disagree with me), please go and make your own submission, even if it’s just a short one. It’s not too difficult, and don’t feel compelled to stick to the structure that the Ministry of Economic Development is trying to encourage if it doesn’t fit what you want to say.
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  • Mokihinui to be dammed

    Well, probably. Several months ago I wrote about our trip along the Mokihinui River, which has been under threat of being dammed by Meridian Energy for some time. A few months later than planned, the Official Commission has finally released a (very long) report in favour of the decision to allow a dam. This will be a surprise for some, because late last year Gerry Brownlee (Minister of Energy and Resources, and Minister for Economic Development) let slip that he didn’t think it would go ahead, before he pulled back and claimed he didn’t get involved in local politics. [Update 22nd May 2012: Meridian has now withdrawn its project from the Environment Court and will not proceed.]

    The decision was majority rather than unanimous, with two of the three commissioners (John Lumsden and Terry Archer) finding in favour of the consents, but the other commissioner (Greg Ryder) considering “that the effects of the proposal on the ecology of the Mokihinui catchment were not only adverse but could not be satisfactorily mitigated”. Their full decisions can be read from page 296 of part one of the document linked from above.

    It is very likely that this decision will be appealed before anything happens. The New Zealand Wild Rivers campaign more or less echoes my thoughts on this.

    A media report from The Press is here.

  • Topo50 map boundaries and Wellington

    This post is my attempt to make sense of where the significant boundaries lie in the replacement 1:50000 Topo50 map series pushed out by Land Information New Zealand last September to replace the old 260 series. I can’t guarantee how much if it will be useful, but as always comments, feedback and experienced elaboration are welcome.

    A couple of weeks ago, I took part in a bulk order of the new Topo50 maps, which replace the old 260 series that’s been in publication for several decades until now. I’m now the owner of 18 Topo50 maps to get me started, having picked up most of them for $3.50 each, around half the usual retail price. You can get this price (which includes GST but not postage) if you have a bulk order or 20 or more maps direct from LINZ, which makes it useful for clubs or groups of friends who know in advance what they want. I wrote about these maps last year, including more detail about why it’s actually happening and what the main changes are. The new maps have a couple of obvious differences:
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