TUATAPERE'S WILD CHALLENGE

Forest and Bird, Volume 22, Issue 2, 1 May 1991, Page 21

TUATAPERE'S WILD CHALLENGE

by

Tim Higham

N JANUARY 12 1991, 22 athletes lined up for the inaugural Wild Challenge race: Tuatapere’s equivalent of the Coast to Coast endurance event. The 6am gathering on the shores of Lake Hauroko was much more significant than the number of entrants in the race indicated. Auckland Radio 1ZB, having seen a news item in the New Zealand Herald, decided to run updates on the race through the day. TV3’'s Melanie Reid built the race into an action packed and entertaining six-minute Nightline piece.

Positive exposure

Within a week race organisers fielded an enquiry from a North Island nature tourism operator about possible accommodation facilities in redundant forestry staff quarters. Tuatapere — it seemed — was finally gaining the positive exposure it deserved. The town had been in the doldrums: in June, then-deputy Prime Minister Helen Clark announced to Forest and Bird’s Council meeting a comprehensive ban on native timber exports. Outraged Tuatapere farmers, counting on the income from clearing and chipping beech forest on marginal land, defiantly felled as many trees as possible before the cut-off

date, parading chainsaws and sawdust in front of print and broadcast journalists. However, it was the lobbying of Wallace MP Bill English and Awarua MP Jeff Grant which proved more successful than the publicity in exempting Southland from the constraints of Labour's Indigenous Forestry Policy. National was prepared to allow chipmilling of sizeable areas of beech forest to give Tuatapere a reprieve. It would permit the filling of existing woodchip contracts and a fiveyear transition period in which native logging could continue until exotic hardwoods came on stream. However, native forest woodchipping would continue until 2002 at a reduced cut. Even in the depths of economic despair organisers of The Wild Challenge were thinking positive. Often huddled around a bar heater in the Tuatapere promotions group information centre, they planned for the big day. Despite thousands of cumulative hours of pounding the streets no major sponsor was forthcoming. The race feasibility study was funded by a business development grant, and a few Southland businesses helped out with prizes and promotional material. Race day dawned fine, but a brisk nor-

wester forced the start of the race to be transferred to Teal Bay, Lake Hauroko's outlet to the Wairaurahiri River, cutting out a 14-kilo-metre lake paddle. The kayak down the Wairaurahiri, compared by competitor Russell Prince to an hour-long hydroslide ride, passed through Waitutu Forest. Waitutu — part stewardship land, part Maori land — is one of the largest areas of lowland temperate rainforest left in New Zealand. Stands of dense podocarp — predominantly rimu, miro and Hall's totara — and silver beech cloak a series of ancient marine terraces which rise from the coast to the mountains of Fiordland. Each of the terraces has slightly different fertility and drainage characteristics and harbours a unique assemblage of plant life. The upper terraces support stunted podocarps, such as yellow silver pine.

Bush-clad terraces

In the mid-1980s Waitutu was the focus of a campaign by Forest and Bird and the Native Forests Action Council. Beautiful photographs of bush-clad terraces graced the pages of calendars and magazines. Forest and Bird has continued to press for Waitutu to be added to Fiordland National Park.

Tuatapere community board chairman Ngarita Dixon says townspeople realise the attractions of the region. "People are fully aware of the potential (for nature tourism), but will almost begrudgingly reveal the secrets that are here. "We are very reluctant to give up our isolation because we enjoy it. But we can no longer afford the seclusion." The Tuatapere and District Promotions Group have made the not-unrealistic assumption that if environmentalists are keen to protect the region's forests, they will also want to spend money exploring them. Tuatapere people are aware that one-and-a-quarter hours up the road Te Anau is enjoying the economic benefits of servicing the very popular Milford, Kepler and Routeburn tracks. Most New Zealanders are drawn to Fiordland by images of launches on Milford and Doubtful Sounds, and trampers standing high above glacially-carved valleys. Promotions group secretary Anne McCracken hopes that the comparatively un-der-utilised southern end of Fiordland National Park, and Waitutu, Dean and Rowallan forests, will become sought after by a different breed of tourist: "The anti-tourist’", says McCracken, "campervanners and cyclists — predominantly young people who want to get away from the main tourist routes to experience the natural environment, the relaxed pace of country life, and the hospitality of real New Zealanders. What better place than Tuatapere."

Seals and dolphins

The McCracken farm homestead overlooks Te Waewae Bay. Family members take for granted the regular visits by fur seals and the antics of a population of about 400 Hector’s

dolphins. Even last year’s month-long visit to the bay of 10 southern right whales caused only minor excitement. "There are a lot of things that we take for granted, which urban New Zealanders are looking to experience," says McCracken. At the changeover for the mountain bike section of the Wild Challenge, at Bluecliffs Beach, Hector’s dolphins cruised and cartwheeled among the breakers, entertaining supporters. The most gruelling section of the race was the run between the Wairaurahiri River and Te Waewae Bay, along old logging tramways. Competitors passed over three spectacular wooden viaducts, the longest, over the Percy Burn, being 124 metres in length and 36 metres above the ravine below. The viaducts and tramways were built in the 1920s to feed timber into the Port Craig mill, at the time one of the most modern in the southern hemisphere. The remains of the mill, dwellings, and a wharf can still be seen, and the old schoolhouse is maintained as a tramper’s hut by the

| | Department of Conservation. The 1930s Depression forced the closure of the Port Craig mill, and served to spare Waitutu forest, to the west of the Wairaurahiri

River, from the axe. The Department of Conservation — with assistance, recently, from engineers of the Australian Army — maintains the viaducts as part of a three-day tramping track from Te Waewae Bay to Big River, beyond Waitutu.

Wilderness and adventure

Southland Conservancy advocacy manager Phil Doole says DOC is planning facilities which will not detract from the Waitutu area's sense of wilderness and adventure. The department is also looking at improving access over the Hump Ridge, a link between Te Waewae Bay and Fiordland’s Lake Hauroko. The track will deviate from the present route, passing spectacular granite outcrops and alpine tarns, and providing panoramas of Lakes Hauroko and Poteriteri, the southern coast and islands of Foveaux Strait. Tuatapere farmer Val McKay has been the first in the town to diversify into a tourist servicing business. He provides a ferry service on Lake Hauroko for trampers and hunters wanting access into the Wairaurahiri River and the southern end of the Dusky Track.

Excellent trout fishing and deer hunting, a rich gold mining and timber milling history, and wild lakes and coastline have others confident there is potential for more jobs. Anne McCracken says the forests, lakes and rivers of the area can still be exploited, "not for timber and hydro-electric power, but for adventure tourism and nature tourism." The Wild Challenge after-race function saw competitors enthusiastic about the future of the event. Winners Russell Prince and Penny Webster vowed to return for the second Wild Challenge and to bring friends and rivals. Prince, who finished in just under six-and-a-half hours, said the event was tougher than the first day of the two-day Coast to Coast race. Unanimously competitors agreed the scenery was superb, and the hospitality unrivalled. Almost everyone in Tuatapere seemed to have something to do with race day administration or catering. Elderly citizens waited patiently on the street for the triathletes to pass. All competitors received a bagpiper’s welcome as they finally crossed the tape, the last coming home in nine-and-a-half hours. The barbecue included marinated venison, huge steaks, and, of course, Tuatapere’s famous sausages. Crayfish cocktails were perfectly garnished, pikelets lovingly topped with jam, and the paviova liberally creamed. Each contestant was called up to the front of the hall for a round of applause and congratulations by race organisers. Most returned again for placings and spot prizes. The Wild Challenge proved to all present that Tuatapere is a town with a big future — even without rimu logs and beech chips. y& Tim Higham is an information officer with the Department of Conservation in Southland.