Kiwi ingenuity keeps club above water

Jack Malcolm

After three bridges have been washed out or damaged beyond repair in the last year, golfers at Waahi Taakaro in the Maitai Valley have come up with a novel new way to get across the river.

After weeks of having to wade across the frigid water, a new shuttle system has been implemented to ferry golfers back and forth on the back of a trailer.

With the car used for the shuttle donated by a club member who’s escaped the cold by travelling out of country, the whole system speaks to how the club and its members have banded together in response to the repeated devastation of their facilities.

Club manager Peter Watson says it’s the only real solution they had while they wait on plans for a new bridge from Nelson City Council, who maintain and manage the course.

“We’re trying to work with the council to make the course less vulnerable to these events.

“We’ve taken out two bunkers and we’re looking at changing the culverts by using the natural swales as run off areas.”

He says the bridge will need to be more robust and higher than previous versions, which were initially damaged in the August floods last year.

“We had to think outside of the square and set up the shuttle.

“This is very much a temporary solution; we’re making the best of what we can.”

That weather event decimated the club, with water rushing over the fairways and depos- iting silt and rocks across the course as it took days to even get up the valley to inspect the damage.

Both bridges over the river were completely wiped out and found further down the river, and the signpost for the club’s 18th hole was found on Rabbit Island after being washed out into Tasman Bay.

Alongside the damage to the course was the near destruction of the newly-implemented pump track that had been the first stage in a wider plan to make the club a hub for mountainbiking in the region.

A pathway running alongside the course and the river, as part of that plan, was completely destroyed and had to be rebuilt, only for it to happen again months later.

In May, the rain came again and brought things back to square one.

While the rest of the city was largely spared from what eventuated to be a worse forecast than reality, Waahi Taakaro took a beating.

The water rushed back up onto the fairways, covering large

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An iwi representative will officially join other local dignitaries on Cawthron Institute’s Trust Board under a law change that was passed by Parliament last Wednesday. It will allow for an patches in loose river rocks and silt again, while a big concrete block was lifted up from the river’s edge and sent tumbling over the green on 18, causing significant damage.

But the biggest effect was damage to the temporary bridge, which was buckled by the water lapping at its base, requiring its removal for safety and creating no way to cross the river without getting wet.

With golfers having to hit over the water twice while playing 18 holes, the loss of the club’s last bridge has caused a significant impact and severely dropped player numbers, Peter says.

While he says they have slightly regained their player base by getting the shuttle system up and running, they are still running at about two thirds of their typical winter usage.

“It was worsened by the August floods, not all the remedial work had been finished,” he says.

“The floods are getting more frequent in the last 10 years. Droughts as well. It’s the extremes of weather.” additional member nominated by local iwi to join the Trust Board, alongside current statutory Board Members - the MP for Nelson, the mayor of Nelson, the mayor of Tasman, and the Anglican Bishop of Nelson. Cawthron Institute Trust Board chair, John Palmer, says amending the Act to allow Te Tauihu iwi to nominate a representative is a significant step forward.

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