| Group | Leader | Mentor | Understudy | Tailender |
| Stds | Chris/Andy (Farmer) | Chris | Kate | Wendy |
| Alternates | “ | “ | “ |
Stats: distance 12.5/ 8km, ascent 250m, time 4hrs
With a good forecast and the sun already shining 46 trampers with driver Alan were anticipating an enjoyable day at Coalgate Forest.
We last tramped here in 2019 as cxl due to weather 2020 & last year following the floods we instead volunteered for a working bee to clear the debris from the farm fences after the Selwyn River had burst its banks. It looked a daunting task with many collapsed fences with broken wires, but many hands made light work & on completion a sumptuous BBQ of venison & sausages with wine & beer was provided in thanks.
Our lucky day as two generous shouts, Margaret Coleman for a significant zero birthday & Brian Wells, the intrepid traveller to celebrate 10 years at BTC & an in- between birthday.
At Darfield as arranged we met Andy K the Farm Manager, our guide for the day.
We turned off into Bush Gully Rd where Andy advised that this year, we had permission from Bathurst to walk up the shingle access road to the open cast mine. This gave us a great perspective of the vastness of the operation seeing the size of the steep hillsides created & the depth they mine with an extensive large pool of water.
Coal has been extracted here for 30 years covering 50 hectares with the seams all vastly different in width & length. Coal was last extracted here in 2021 which will keep the determined protesters happy. Fonterra & other dairy companies now get coal from the West Coast & Indonesia. In the future Fonterra will use only wood burning fires which will necessitate a lot more forests & hopefully involve a process where wood from the whole tree can be utilised.
En route to the mine we walked past a pine plantation owned by Matariki. Any trees planted before 1990 do not qualify for carbon credits even when replanted. The job of shutting down a mine & restoring the land is a very slow process that can take many years before final sign off. There are so many areas of liability such as erosion, silt in the waterways etc. We were able to see first-hand the huge effort that has already gone into restoration of the land with massive soil & rock movement, stabilisation & plantings using all the toys for boys. Andy said the pool of water created may be transformed into a lake where water skiing could take place with picnic areas on the shore. Each piece of land is carefully considered such as the planting of natives where viable. Good to hear that the farm & Bathurst share excellent relationships both with the same vision.
We all puffed up a steep grassy hill before we qualified for morning tea with a view at 10.50am. After the break we joined up with farm tracks used in previous years & reached the highest point of the farm with two large water tanks with soft green grass to rest & more glorious views for lunch at 12.25pm.
After lunch Chris proved a competent leader along tracks, through gates, across deer paddocks beside pine plantations heading towards the bus at Whitecliffs. One gate had the men stumped when Andy suddenly appeared in his vehicle with a key to unlock the padlock. This saved the day for the men as to hoist all the women over the high gate would have been a task! With the mountain backdrop we looked towards Flagpole a destination on another tramp. In the final stretch there were several large pine trees down to walk through & over. Andy appeared again now on a quad bike to check
we were on track for the bus which we reached at 2.15pm which allowed us time for refreshments at Darfield. Home in Christchurch at 4pm after a wonderful day in which we had gained a better understanding of all the processes at play in restoring the land after years of mining. Txt by Kate
PS Andy’s website – WAKAEPA – sells lamb, venison, honey. Goes live in a month.
