Tourism records Uniforms for Pipiriki School for Pipiriki

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 10, Issue 483, 27 April 1993, Page 9

Tourism records Uniforms for Pipiriki School

for Pipiriki

Tourism in the tiny river township of Pipiriki is booming. Unconfirmed figures put the number of river users and day trippers up 8.9% on last year's record figure of 4000. The exact number will not be known until local concessionaires' figures can be added to numbers taken by track counters on both the Mangapurua and Matemateaonga Tracks, and additional figures held by the Department of Conservation. Permanent staff and a team of volunteers were kept busy over the summer period with work being carried out on existing facilities, and the in-

stallation of new ones throughout the Whanganui National Park. The popular Mangapurua Track received some extensive re-benching, with slips cleared and the walking track restored to its original path. Staff installed two new swing bridges, one replacing Waterfall Creek's original road bridge and saving visitors a half hour deviation. Volunteers Volunteer staff from the conservation core of Wanganui Polytechnic, and a group of six international volunteers, worked with Department of Conservation staff to effect improvements

throughout the area. An innovation provoking plenty of positive feedback is the new Park toilet. A new design features a solar-heated venting system that draws out the drop toilet's trademark odours, elminating smell and associated flies. Improvements still to be carried out include the signposting of all 20 campsites on the river between Taumarunui and Pipiriki - the figure includes the Park's three self-contained huts. While the winter months of April through September are traditionally quiet, Park ranger Dennis McDonnell reported around 40 people to be still on the river as of last Wednesday.