December 02, 2019
Paparoa Track open for walkers despite slip
The first season of New Zealand’s newest Great Walk has almost sold out with over 90 percent of bookings being New Zealanders.
The Paparoa Track was officially opened in Blackball on Saturday by Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage alongside Ngāti Waewae and the families of the 29 miners who died in the Pike River explosion.
The 55 kilometre track crossing the Paparoa Range will link to the Pike 29 Memorial Track, which is still under construction.
Ms Sage says the track route passes through rich beech and podocarp forest and over open tops of alpine scrub and tussock.
It provides breath-taking views to the Southern Alps and over the Tasman Sea and passes along a towering sandstone escarpment above the Punakāiki River headwaters before descending to the west off the Paparoa Range.
Due to a slip earlier this month, the middle section of the track will remain closed until just before Christmas, but peopled who have already booked will be able to make return journeys to either hut.
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