Community comes together to save Wairoa Gorge Bike Park

Nelson Mountain Bike Club have launched a fundraiser to get Wairoa Gorge Bike Park reopened after a landslip blocked off access last fortnight.

The club is looking to raise $50,000 for assessments and repairs for the estimated 500-800m2 of earth left blocking access to the park.

Volunteer Eddie Westrupp was one of three Wairoa Gorge Bike Park volunteers at the scene when the slips came down on Saturday, July 17.

“The big slip happened while we were doing some work up on the hill, checking the drainage while it was raining,” he says.

Eddie and his fellow volunteers were left separated from the cars trapped in the car park above.

“When we saw it we thought ‘crikey'. We went down the hill across the river and thought, guess we’re staying the night,” he says.

Thankfully the trio got out safely after moving some boulders and rubble but they have had to leave their cars behind.

He describes the slip as 5km into the park entrance and another 2km from the park’s car park.

Eddie says he is one of approximately 70 dedicated volunteers who maintain the park, Eddie has been coming to the gorge once a week, every week for the past year.

Wairoa Gorge Bike Park operations manager Greg McIntyre says the wet weather from the weekend just been has worsened conditions at the park.

“Theres more mudslides and debris on the road, I couldn’t get any further up there,” he says.

Greg says a geotechnician was able to get on-site Tuesday.

“Now we need to go and negate any risk of rocks falling and the rock face shifting all the loose debris before we can get a digger in,” he says.

He says it won’t be a cheap fix for the not-for-profit team.

“Being a club, we rely on a lot of volunteers to groom our trails. This is way bigger than what we can handle. We’ve talked to contractors and have found people that will go in and clear it but we don’t have the money,” he says.

Greg says responsibility for the park falls on the Nelson Mountain Bike Club team, the land being gifted by the club to the Department of Conservation in 2016.

Nelson Mountain Bike Club manager Belinda Crisp was the one to make Clear the Slip! Givealittle page on Monday.

“After the slip, we started doing some investigating and looking at our options to see if any subsidies or government funding would be available,” she says.

Belinda says she’s contacted numerous government agencies and Tasman District Council to get the road back open but says even if there was something available, it would take months to get off the ground.

“The community have been the main people to come forward, offering their services from geotechnicians, digger and truck drivers. We’re trying to ask as widely as we can,” she says.

If funding allows, the slip debris would be screened and made into roading material and spread on the Gorge Rd.

As of Wednesday, the Givealittle has just over $4000 of donations.

“We have a long way to go but thank you for those people who have donated so far, we have wonderful support for the Gorge,” she says.