Newsletter 46
Dear Southland Sea Kayakers
12 July 2009
I have just returned from my 6 months sabbatical on distant seas and shores and am looking forward to getting out again in my sea kayak. Winter is a great time for sea kayaking here in the deep south. When the weather is fine there is usually no wind and the mountains look great with their mantle of snow. I am keen to run a few trips soon so don't be shy in contacting me if you're keen.
Trips
When I was away I did manage to go sea kayaking in Israel with Misha Hoichman off Tel Aviv. It was a bit challenging due to the narrow tippy kayak minus a rudder of course and a strong onshore wind driving 1 metre steep waves on my beam. Thankfully I did not have to practice my roll which I fear has deteriorated after 6 months out of Murchison. Of interest is the organisation of sea kayaking in Israel which is very different from NZ. Jacqui and Tim Anderson ran a series of rolling sessions at Splash Palace in June. We hope to run further ones in spring.
Sardinia
In May Belinda and I went sea kayaking in Sardinia. The following is from my journal.
On 13th May we were up early and had a breakfast of pasteries and coffee. I got some money out of an ATM (Eur 250) and then Judith dropped us off on Glofo di Cugnana. Kayaked out to Isola Soffi and I. Moritorio. These are a few kilometres offshore and made of pink granite. Strong SE winds came up so we stayed on the island. Decided not to leave in the evening even though the wind dropped. We pitched the tent and the wind flapped it all night. My insulite mat was too thin to be useful and my pillow was my life jacket (useless). Eventually I gave up and crawled out of the tent and slept beside a rock nearby.
We awoke to a better day. The wind had dropped and the sea was flat so we decided to set off at 0600 for a red cliff on the mainland to the north of us. There were lots of expensive houses along the coast as we kayaked north in perfect conditions. We rounded a cape at the northeast coast of Sardinia and had breakfast on an island called Isolo delle Bisce. There was a bit of a sea running in the strait and the waves were with us so we sped along. After this we crossed the sea to Isolo Caprera to the west. The east coast of this large island is deserted and mountainous and was about 10 kilometres away. We stopped at a lovely deserted cove with white sand running into a turquoise sea and had a swim in the surprisingly cold water. We set off again around P. lera where we pulled in to a nice cove marred a bit by rubbish and boiled a pan of water for Irish Coffee and lunch. As it was still early we decided to kayak across to Isola Maddelena to the west and rounded the northwest cape to camp at P. Marginetto. We went for a walk on the hill above our campsite and found an old military gun turret of stone. Offshore were the deserted outer islands in the Strait of Bonifacio but we did not have time to risk a trip out to them.
We awoke to another beautiful day and set off south along the west coast of Isola Maddelena. Rounding the SW corner we re-entered civilization with lots of houses and then a large port. This was busy with lots of ferries coming across from Palau. We circumnavigated a small island to the east which had a submarine base on it and we were warned off by some soldiers there. We stopped for lunch on the coast east of Palau and then carried on to the campground where Judith eventually met us. She drove us to Santa Theresa de Gallura where we found a ferry just about to depart to Bonifacio in Corsica so it was a rush to board it in time. By now it was raining and we reached the other side at 6.00 PM....
In June Belinda kayaked quite a few lochs in Scotland while I went off peak bagging, 32 peaks in 2 weeks. After this we went sea kayaking in Skye in the Inner Hebridies. My journal records..
Skye, "Then we drove up to Skye and met Morag and Gordon Brown and went out to dinner with them and their two children. They sorted out some kayaks and gear for us and let us use her house at Kyleakin which was great. The weather was grey, cool and showery.
Saturday dawned fine so we set off on a trip in the kayaks. Belinda fell off the steps down the sea wall and onto the kayak she was carrying and fractured some ribs. Undeterred we set off under the bridge of Skye and saw lots of seals on the small islands just north of the bridge and then struck out for Longay where we stopped for lunch. Then it was on around Scalpay. The wind came away approaching Eyre Point. It was a long haul back via Coalas Scalpay and on to Pabsay where we stopped for a breather and then on to the bridge and Kyleaskin. Guessed we kayaked about 35 kilometres and I felt quite sore as the foot rests are a bit tight even at maximal extent. These British kayaks do not have rudders and only a skeg and are in my opinion a poor design. I reckon our Kiwi kayaks are far superior. B was in a lot of pain at night so I went off to the other bedroom."
Proposed Trips
Pigeon Island I am keen to organise a weekend trip out to Pigeon Island at the head of Lake Whakatipu. Its only 2-3 kilometre paddle and there is a comfortable hut on the south side of the island. If anyone is keen can they contact me ph 2157263 or CP 021 042 2640 or em: [email protected] and let me know what weekends they are free. Plan is to go up Saturday morning and overnight at the hut and back Sunday after a paddle around islands. If anyone is interested we could also have a walk up above Glenorchy in the new conservation park there.
Howitt Peaks I a keen to paddle up the Middle Fiord on Lake Te Anau and climb up on the Howitt Peaks for a camp in the snow and possibly a ridge walk around to Fleck Peak. Its great country and there is always the possibility of seeing Alpine Kiwis or Takahe. A few years ago I climbed up Fleck Peak in winter and saw large prints in the snow of Alpine Kiwi_ a wonderful sight!! Again anyone interested just give me a ring or email me.
Monowai Weekend Skills course It is a few years since we ran one of these and if there is enough interest I might run one again in probably November. If you are interested in a weekend of learning/updating your kayak skills can you let me know. There will be an extensive programme of skills demonstration including talks, DVD's, rolling and rescue practice in a heated pool at Blackmount and a trip on Lake Monawai. I need about 15 people to run a course so let me know if you are keen.
Expeditions:
Freya Hoffmeister is on her self styled " Race around Australia" kayaking expedition. Not sure who she is racing as she is solo as far as I know! Anyway she is going very well and latest report says that she is just south of Broome on day 174 which is impressive.
Save our wild rivers
The following email was received from Mick Hopkinson
Hi Everbody,
Trying to make the most use of the Matakitaki list. This is a first
trial of the "Weapon"...you lot. On the 24th March I wrote a long letter
to Mr. Key in his capacity as Minister of Tourism. The gist of the
letter is set out below. The object of the exercise is simple...to make
sure that Wellington has heard of the MATAKITAKI and other South island
Hydro schemes. Mr. Key's secretary has passed this letter to the
Associate Minister of Tourism Hon. Dr. Jonathan Coleman
The joy of the New Zealand Democratic system is this:-
If you ring Hondocjoncol he has to ring back!
If you email same he has to email back!
If you write same he has to write back!
PLEASE RING, EMAIL, WRITE your feelings about RIVERS, SCHEMES and the
MATAKITAKI in particular from a domestic and international TOURIST
perspective! This is a positive action to garner support at Government
level.
A BRIEF SUMMARY OF MY LETTER:
"Network Tasman's rational for damming our river is security of
transmission in the top of the South Island. Their proposed scheme on
the Matakitaki River is the same distance from Nelson/Richmond as Lake
Karapiro is from Auckland. Where is the logic in that? Auckland's power
outages were caused by failure of Transpower infrastructure not by
distance from supply. Network Tasman's strategy is tribal and regional
when we should have a NATIONAL policy produced by the Electricity
Commission.
I am pleased to see that the National Government has lifted the ten year
moratorium on Thermal generation and I note that Contact Energy is
investigating four large Hydro Schemes on the Clutha River. The North
Bank of the Waitaki Scheme has also been consented. The economies of
scale on these large schemes and an upgraded NATIONAL grid make sense.
Destroying our "clean and green" image, which even now we are promoting in London, does not make sense.
Can your ministry help us?
We need input at government level as to the importance of rivers as part
of the tourist industry.
We need a list of rivers of NATIONAL and regional importance for Tourism.
We need research into the dollar value of Rafting, Kayaking, Jet
Boating, White Water sledging, Fishing etc. How much is a trout fishing
river worth to the tourist economy? How much is white water river worth
to the tourist economy?
We need to know how many more rivers we can afford to lose before New
Zealand has no longer anything special to offer to visiting tourists.
We need pressure put on the Department of Conservation to preserve
rivers from Hydro Schemes that are planned for the public estate unless
the schemes are of sufficient size to be nationally significant. What
size of scheme is NATIONALLY significant? Is a 20 MW scheme on the
Waitaha worth losing one of the best rivers in the world?
We need the Ministry of Tourism submitting at Resource Consent Hearings
to express the importance of rivers in our tourist economy.
What price Reputation in the world tourist economy? Murchison, World
Famous White Water Capital of New Zealand or the world's nth. smallest
hydro scheme?
CONTACT:-
[email protected]
(04)817 6818
Hon. Dr. Jonathan Coleman
Associate Minister of Tourism
Parliament Buildings
Wellington 6011
New Zealand
Cheers
Mick Hopkinson
Mick is right about the proposed damming of small rivers in New Zealand. They produce only an infinitesimal amount of power and they wreck wonderful alpine rivers. There is a myth about renewable energy and dams. Dams have a limited life and they pose a major problem in decommissioning them. The following is an article I wrote on dams last Christmas. I'm disappointed to say that several journals I sent it to did not think it worth publishing
An Environmental Disaster for New Zealand's most pristine Rivers
by Stanley Mulvany
New Zealand is facing an energy crisis with electricity demand growing at the rate of 150-200 megawatts of generating capacity every year. Some of the extra demand is due to population increase but a large part is due to intensification of agriculture with huge growth in the dairy industry and irrigation on a vast scale. Compounding the problem is the privatisation of the electricity industry who naturally are driven by profit for their shareholders. Global warming and the Emmission Trading Scheme have popularised so called Renewable Energy. The government have committed New Zealand to producing 90% of its electricity by 2025 up from 70% at present. Present policy is to look at increasing hydroelectric, wind farm and thermal generation.
On a recent kayaking course in Murchison I learned much about proposed hydroelectric generation proposals for a raft of rivers in the upper part of the West Coast including the Mokihinui River near Seddonville, the Matiri River, the Matakitaki River, the Glenroy river and many others. The word on the street is that that electricity companies and private companies have been quietly buying land in the catchments of these rivers and Network Tasman have contracted Hydro Tasmania to investigate dam proposals. Hydro Tasmania have an unenviable record of single handedly destroying the vast majority of Tasmania's rivers. It polarised the local population by promises of increased jobs and led to the birth of the Green Party in Australia.
Currently Meridian Energy is proposing a dam on the Mokihinui River just upstream of Seddonville. It will destroy a prime kayaking river as well as a large swathe of native forest. It is estimated to produce about 85 MW ( just half a years demand). The West Coast Regional and Buller District Council oppose this scheme. Interestingly Meridian have rejected an unfavourable Landcare Research report it commissioned as "unsuitable". In this report it was suggested removal of another west coast dam would mitigate some of the environmental impacts of the proposal. No doubt Meridian considered this too expensive.
There is a less well known proposal for the Matiri River by a private Motueka company a so called "River run scheme" but in essence it will only allow 1 cumec of water in the river at selected times and render it unsuitable for kayaking as well as destroying the fish population.
I had the pleasure of kayaking down the Matakitaki River with Mick Hopkinson founder of the NZ Kayak School at Murchison recently. Although the valley may seem modified from the road with green fields and some plantations from river level it was spectacular with grade 2 rapids, high canyon walls and a green corridor of native bush overhead. This too is under threat. What is even more astonishing is that the amount of power thought to be generated is only 15 MW from that proposal.
Additional environmental damage associated with hydro dams on these rivers are the construction of access roads, transmission lines and loss of habitat for endangered species such as blue duck. As a matter of interest I did a tramp last week in the Toaroha and Kokatahi Rivers and recorded 6 blue duck on my trip. I've no doubt other west coast rivers will have similar populations of blue duck.
Indefinite electricity demand is unsustainable and will not be solved by damming every river in New Zealand. The amount of electricity generated from damming West Coast rivers is actually quite small when compared to the 800MW of the Manapouri scheme. We need to tackle the problem on several fronts and most importantly to reduce demand. Subsidized solar heating, eco bulbs and better education of the population as regards conservation of power ( turn off hot water if going on holidays as an example) are essential. Also agriculture and industry must play their part. Agriculture has an ETS holiday till 2013. How fair is this?
Lastly, I will touch on the myth that hydro is the long term answer to secure supply. Not true! Dams grow old and die like us. When they die they produce a big problem if not decommissioned such as the risk of dam failure. In the USA there are 80,000 dams and greater than half are over 50 years old. The life span of a typically unmaintained dam is conservatively estimated at 75 yrs according to Environment Canada. In the USA there are thousands of derelict dams and the company owners have vanished and no one is taking responsibility for decommissioning. In Pakistan the world's largest earth dam, the Tarbela Dam on the Indus has a life span of 85 years which means it is half finished already. The same fate awaits all our dams. We also are planning dams in a earthquake zone. How sensible is that? We will leave a huge legacy of environmental damage and derelict dams for our children to sort out.
"Clean and Green" should be our guiding principal not an empty shibboleth. I know we can do better and it's smart to do so. Tourism is a huge money earner for this country and the main reason people come is to see unspoilt nature not ugly hydro dams and wrecked rivers. It affects all of us kayakers, trampers, recreational fishermen mountaineers and yes the tourists and you and I. Lets have more debate on the future of our wild rivers in New Zealand. Do we understand what is at risk? Lets look at alternatives.
Dr Stanley Mulvany
Invercargill
Sea Kayaking in Israel
Sea kayaking in Israel is a recognised sport for about 12 years. It is organised on commercial lines. There are at least four large clubs, Terra Santa and Lev Hayam being two of them. There is an annual membership feeof about 900 USD and for this you get free use of club kayaks and instruction. One cannot take out a kayak by yourself unless you pass a competency test. There are various levels of competency_ calm, rough with instructor, calm and rough without an instructor.
Israel is producing some world class sea kayakers
Misha Hoichman: Circumnavigation of Tasmania in 2005 and Ireland in 2007 with Alon Ohad.
Alon Ohad: Visited here a few years ago and solo circumnavigated Stewart Island. Circumnavigation of Tasmania and Ireland. Attempted circumnavigation of Spitzbergen in Norwegian Atctic.
Haddas Feldman: Circumnavigation of Newfoundland, Japan, South Georgia ( with Brits who used a yacht for rests unlike the Kiwis!!) expedition to Kamchatka
Rotim Ron: Solo circumnavigation of Ireland
Israelis have some distinct advantages in skill accretion in that they have year round warm water to practice in and rarely have storms in the Levant. The organisation on commercial lines means there is always an instructor there to teach novices unlike here where we teach ourselves. Their instructors work with the BCU so have excellent skills.
Safe Paddling
Stanley
12 July 2009
I have just returned from my 6 months sabbatical on distant seas and shores and am looking forward to getting out again in my sea kayak. Winter is a great time for sea kayaking here in the deep south. When the weather is fine there is usually no wind and the mountains look great with their mantle of snow. I am keen to run a few trips soon so don't be shy in contacting me if you're keen.
Trips
When I was away I did manage to go sea kayaking in Israel with Misha Hoichman off Tel Aviv. It was a bit challenging due to the narrow tippy kayak minus a rudder of course and a strong onshore wind driving 1 metre steep waves on my beam. Thankfully I did not have to practice my roll which I fear has deteriorated after 6 months out of Murchison. Of interest is the organisation of sea kayaking in Israel which is very different from NZ. Jacqui and Tim Anderson ran a series of rolling sessions at Splash Palace in June. We hope to run further ones in spring.
Sardinia
In May Belinda and I went sea kayaking in Sardinia. The following is from my journal.
On 13th May we were up early and had a breakfast of pasteries and coffee. I got some money out of an ATM (Eur 250) and then Judith dropped us off on Glofo di Cugnana. Kayaked out to Isola Soffi and I. Moritorio. These are a few kilometres offshore and made of pink granite. Strong SE winds came up so we stayed on the island. Decided not to leave in the evening even though the wind dropped. We pitched the tent and the wind flapped it all night. My insulite mat was too thin to be useful and my pillow was my life jacket (useless). Eventually I gave up and crawled out of the tent and slept beside a rock nearby.
We awoke to a better day. The wind had dropped and the sea was flat so we decided to set off at 0600 for a red cliff on the mainland to the north of us. There were lots of expensive houses along the coast as we kayaked north in perfect conditions. We rounded a cape at the northeast coast of Sardinia and had breakfast on an island called Isolo delle Bisce. There was a bit of a sea running in the strait and the waves were with us so we sped along. After this we crossed the sea to Isolo Caprera to the west. The east coast of this large island is deserted and mountainous and was about 10 kilometres away. We stopped at a lovely deserted cove with white sand running into a turquoise sea and had a swim in the surprisingly cold water. We set off again around P. lera where we pulled in to a nice cove marred a bit by rubbish and boiled a pan of water for Irish Coffee and lunch. As it was still early we decided to kayak across to Isola Maddelena to the west and rounded the northwest cape to camp at P. Marginetto. We went for a walk on the hill above our campsite and found an old military gun turret of stone. Offshore were the deserted outer islands in the Strait of Bonifacio but we did not have time to risk a trip out to them.
We awoke to another beautiful day and set off south along the west coast of Isola Maddelena. Rounding the SW corner we re-entered civilization with lots of houses and then a large port. This was busy with lots of ferries coming across from Palau. We circumnavigated a small island to the east which had a submarine base on it and we were warned off by some soldiers there. We stopped for lunch on the coast east of Palau and then carried on to the campground where Judith eventually met us. She drove us to Santa Theresa de Gallura where we found a ferry just about to depart to Bonifacio in Corsica so it was a rush to board it in time. By now it was raining and we reached the other side at 6.00 PM....
In June Belinda kayaked quite a few lochs in Scotland while I went off peak bagging, 32 peaks in 2 weeks. After this we went sea kayaking in Skye in the Inner Hebridies. My journal records..
Skye, "Then we drove up to Skye and met Morag and Gordon Brown and went out to dinner with them and their two children. They sorted out some kayaks and gear for us and let us use her house at Kyleakin which was great. The weather was grey, cool and showery.
Saturday dawned fine so we set off on a trip in the kayaks. Belinda fell off the steps down the sea wall and onto the kayak she was carrying and fractured some ribs. Undeterred we set off under the bridge of Skye and saw lots of seals on the small islands just north of the bridge and then struck out for Longay where we stopped for lunch. Then it was on around Scalpay. The wind came away approaching Eyre Point. It was a long haul back via Coalas Scalpay and on to Pabsay where we stopped for a breather and then on to the bridge and Kyleaskin. Guessed we kayaked about 35 kilometres and I felt quite sore as the foot rests are a bit tight even at maximal extent. These British kayaks do not have rudders and only a skeg and are in my opinion a poor design. I reckon our Kiwi kayaks are far superior. B was in a lot of pain at night so I went off to the other bedroom."
Proposed Trips
Pigeon Island I am keen to organise a weekend trip out to Pigeon Island at the head of Lake Whakatipu. Its only 2-3 kilometre paddle and there is a comfortable hut on the south side of the island. If anyone is keen can they contact me ph 2157263 or CP 021 042 2640 or em: [email protected] and let me know what weekends they are free. Plan is to go up Saturday morning and overnight at the hut and back Sunday after a paddle around islands. If anyone is interested we could also have a walk up above Glenorchy in the new conservation park there.
Howitt Peaks I a keen to paddle up the Middle Fiord on Lake Te Anau and climb up on the Howitt Peaks for a camp in the snow and possibly a ridge walk around to Fleck Peak. Its great country and there is always the possibility of seeing Alpine Kiwis or Takahe. A few years ago I climbed up Fleck Peak in winter and saw large prints in the snow of Alpine Kiwi_ a wonderful sight!! Again anyone interested just give me a ring or email me.
Monowai Weekend Skills course It is a few years since we ran one of these and if there is enough interest I might run one again in probably November. If you are interested in a weekend of learning/updating your kayak skills can you let me know. There will be an extensive programme of skills demonstration including talks, DVD's, rolling and rescue practice in a heated pool at Blackmount and a trip on Lake Monawai. I need about 15 people to run a course so let me know if you are keen.
Expeditions:
Freya Hoffmeister is on her self styled " Race around Australia" kayaking expedition. Not sure who she is racing as she is solo as far as I know! Anyway she is going very well and latest report says that she is just south of Broome on day 174 which is impressive.
Save our wild rivers
The following email was received from Mick Hopkinson
Hi Everbody,
Trying to make the most use of the Matakitaki list. This is a first
trial of the "Weapon"...you lot. On the 24th March I wrote a long letter
to Mr. Key in his capacity as Minister of Tourism. The gist of the
letter is set out below. The object of the exercise is simple...to make
sure that Wellington has heard of the MATAKITAKI and other South island
Hydro schemes. Mr. Key's secretary has passed this letter to the
Associate Minister of Tourism Hon. Dr. Jonathan Coleman
The joy of the New Zealand Democratic system is this:-
If you ring Hondocjoncol he has to ring back!
If you email same he has to email back!
If you write same he has to write back!
PLEASE RING, EMAIL, WRITE your feelings about RIVERS, SCHEMES and the
MATAKITAKI in particular from a domestic and international TOURIST
perspective! This is a positive action to garner support at Government
level.
A BRIEF SUMMARY OF MY LETTER:
"Network Tasman's rational for damming our river is security of
transmission in the top of the South Island. Their proposed scheme on
the Matakitaki River is the same distance from Nelson/Richmond as Lake
Karapiro is from Auckland. Where is the logic in that? Auckland's power
outages were caused by failure of Transpower infrastructure not by
distance from supply. Network Tasman's strategy is tribal and regional
when we should have a NATIONAL policy produced by the Electricity
Commission.
I am pleased to see that the National Government has lifted the ten year
moratorium on Thermal generation and I note that Contact Energy is
investigating four large Hydro Schemes on the Clutha River. The North
Bank of the Waitaki Scheme has also been consented. The economies of
scale on these large schemes and an upgraded NATIONAL grid make sense.
Destroying our "clean and green" image, which even now we are promoting in London, does not make sense.
Can your ministry help us?
We need input at government level as to the importance of rivers as part
of the tourist industry.
We need a list of rivers of NATIONAL and regional importance for Tourism.
We need research into the dollar value of Rafting, Kayaking, Jet
Boating, White Water sledging, Fishing etc. How much is a trout fishing
river worth to the tourist economy? How much is white water river worth
to the tourist economy?
We need to know how many more rivers we can afford to lose before New
Zealand has no longer anything special to offer to visiting tourists.
We need pressure put on the Department of Conservation to preserve
rivers from Hydro Schemes that are planned for the public estate unless
the schemes are of sufficient size to be nationally significant. What
size of scheme is NATIONALLY significant? Is a 20 MW scheme on the
Waitaha worth losing one of the best rivers in the world?
We need the Ministry of Tourism submitting at Resource Consent Hearings
to express the importance of rivers in our tourist economy.
What price Reputation in the world tourist economy? Murchison, World
Famous White Water Capital of New Zealand or the world's nth. smallest
hydro scheme?
CONTACT:-
[email protected]
(04)817 6818
Hon. Dr. Jonathan Coleman
Associate Minister of Tourism
Parliament Buildings
Wellington 6011
New Zealand
Cheers
Mick Hopkinson
Mick is right about the proposed damming of small rivers in New Zealand. They produce only an infinitesimal amount of power and they wreck wonderful alpine rivers. There is a myth about renewable energy and dams. Dams have a limited life and they pose a major problem in decommissioning them. The following is an article I wrote on dams last Christmas. I'm disappointed to say that several journals I sent it to did not think it worth publishing
An Environmental Disaster for New Zealand's most pristine Rivers
by Stanley Mulvany
New Zealand is facing an energy crisis with electricity demand growing at the rate of 150-200 megawatts of generating capacity every year. Some of the extra demand is due to population increase but a large part is due to intensification of agriculture with huge growth in the dairy industry and irrigation on a vast scale. Compounding the problem is the privatisation of the electricity industry who naturally are driven by profit for their shareholders. Global warming and the Emmission Trading Scheme have popularised so called Renewable Energy. The government have committed New Zealand to producing 90% of its electricity by 2025 up from 70% at present. Present policy is to look at increasing hydroelectric, wind farm and thermal generation.
On a recent kayaking course in Murchison I learned much about proposed hydroelectric generation proposals for a raft of rivers in the upper part of the West Coast including the Mokihinui River near Seddonville, the Matiri River, the Matakitaki River, the Glenroy river and many others. The word on the street is that that electricity companies and private companies have been quietly buying land in the catchments of these rivers and Network Tasman have contracted Hydro Tasmania to investigate dam proposals. Hydro Tasmania have an unenviable record of single handedly destroying the vast majority of Tasmania's rivers. It polarised the local population by promises of increased jobs and led to the birth of the Green Party in Australia.
Currently Meridian Energy is proposing a dam on the Mokihinui River just upstream of Seddonville. It will destroy a prime kayaking river as well as a large swathe of native forest. It is estimated to produce about 85 MW ( just half a years demand). The West Coast Regional and Buller District Council oppose this scheme. Interestingly Meridian have rejected an unfavourable Landcare Research report it commissioned as "unsuitable". In this report it was suggested removal of another west coast dam would mitigate some of the environmental impacts of the proposal. No doubt Meridian considered this too expensive.
There is a less well known proposal for the Matiri River by a private Motueka company a so called "River run scheme" but in essence it will only allow 1 cumec of water in the river at selected times and render it unsuitable for kayaking as well as destroying the fish population.
I had the pleasure of kayaking down the Matakitaki River with Mick Hopkinson founder of the NZ Kayak School at Murchison recently. Although the valley may seem modified from the road with green fields and some plantations from river level it was spectacular with grade 2 rapids, high canyon walls and a green corridor of native bush overhead. This too is under threat. What is even more astonishing is that the amount of power thought to be generated is only 15 MW from that proposal.
Additional environmental damage associated with hydro dams on these rivers are the construction of access roads, transmission lines and loss of habitat for endangered species such as blue duck. As a matter of interest I did a tramp last week in the Toaroha and Kokatahi Rivers and recorded 6 blue duck on my trip. I've no doubt other west coast rivers will have similar populations of blue duck.
Indefinite electricity demand is unsustainable and will not be solved by damming every river in New Zealand. The amount of electricity generated from damming West Coast rivers is actually quite small when compared to the 800MW of the Manapouri scheme. We need to tackle the problem on several fronts and most importantly to reduce demand. Subsidized solar heating, eco bulbs and better education of the population as regards conservation of power ( turn off hot water if going on holidays as an example) are essential. Also agriculture and industry must play their part. Agriculture has an ETS holiday till 2013. How fair is this?
Lastly, I will touch on the myth that hydro is the long term answer to secure supply. Not true! Dams grow old and die like us. When they die they produce a big problem if not decommissioned such as the risk of dam failure. In the USA there are 80,000 dams and greater than half are over 50 years old. The life span of a typically unmaintained dam is conservatively estimated at 75 yrs according to Environment Canada. In the USA there are thousands of derelict dams and the company owners have vanished and no one is taking responsibility for decommissioning. In Pakistan the world's largest earth dam, the Tarbela Dam on the Indus has a life span of 85 years which means it is half finished already. The same fate awaits all our dams. We also are planning dams in a earthquake zone. How sensible is that? We will leave a huge legacy of environmental damage and derelict dams for our children to sort out.
"Clean and Green" should be our guiding principal not an empty shibboleth. I know we can do better and it's smart to do so. Tourism is a huge money earner for this country and the main reason people come is to see unspoilt nature not ugly hydro dams and wrecked rivers. It affects all of us kayakers, trampers, recreational fishermen mountaineers and yes the tourists and you and I. Lets have more debate on the future of our wild rivers in New Zealand. Do we understand what is at risk? Lets look at alternatives.
Dr Stanley Mulvany
Invercargill
Sea Kayaking in Israel
Sea kayaking in Israel is a recognised sport for about 12 years. It is organised on commercial lines. There are at least four large clubs, Terra Santa and Lev Hayam being two of them. There is an annual membership feeof about 900 USD and for this you get free use of club kayaks and instruction. One cannot take out a kayak by yourself unless you pass a competency test. There are various levels of competency_ calm, rough with instructor, calm and rough without an instructor.
Israel is producing some world class sea kayakers
Misha Hoichman: Circumnavigation of Tasmania in 2005 and Ireland in 2007 with Alon Ohad.
Alon Ohad: Visited here a few years ago and solo circumnavigated Stewart Island. Circumnavigation of Tasmania and Ireland. Attempted circumnavigation of Spitzbergen in Norwegian Atctic.
Haddas Feldman: Circumnavigation of Newfoundland, Japan, South Georgia ( with Brits who used a yacht for rests unlike the Kiwis!!) expedition to Kamchatka
Rotim Ron: Solo circumnavigation of Ireland
Israelis have some distinct advantages in skill accretion in that they have year round warm water to practice in and rarely have storms in the Levant. The organisation on commercial lines means there is always an instructor there to teach novices unlike here where we teach ourselves. Their instructors work with the BCU so have excellent skills.
Safe Paddling
Stanley