Hopu Ruahine bridge destabilises when cable breaks

The photo reminds me of the old Waiohine Gorge wire bridge of the 90's. That bridge was so loose so it could swing sideways and twist over. During one particularly windy crossing I swear that I was at least close to horizontal 3-4 times. Damn glad it was removed and replaced in 2007 with the current engineering marvel.

I had this hilarious crossing of that bridge in 1992. Dog and I had come over from Alpha via Bull Mound, but because of the rain the stream crossing (Makaka Creek) to get to Totara Creek was too high to cross, I had to camp overnight. In the morning decided to go out via Waiohine Gorge. By the time I got down there the rain and wind were even worse so I wasn't looking forward to crossing it. Well damn me if the dog wouldn't set foot on it. Spent about 20 mins trying every trick I could think of, even crossed half-way over, but all he did was run down the bush to the edge of the river and try to swim. Well that would have been the end of him, but fortunately a sliver of sense kicked in and he retreated. He was too big to carry, so in the end I grabbed him, tightened up the collar and leash and dragged him over. Him with his feet dug in, whining, barking, choking and utterly miserable - me slowly walking backwards a few paces and then hauling with all my might to get him another few metres across. All the time the bridge was rocking'n rolling like mad in the gale, the rain hosing in horizontally - and if anyone had seen us they would've died laughing. A video would have broken the internet if it had existed back then. So we get almost all the way across, and then with terra firma in sight, the poor creature makes a bolt for it between my legs. Whump - over I go face-planting into the wiremesh - the final indignity. Getting back onto my feet I turn about feeling none too charitable towards him, and there he is - large as life, pleased as punch with a big idiot grin on his face. "Boss we made it!" I had to forgive him.

Do you mean this one next to Totara Flats? https://farm1.staticflickr.com/145/427916398_da8f985cfc.jpg (Flickr ref: https://www.flickr.com/photos/83154423@N00/427916398/ ) At least it's honest. :)

yeah , couldnt get a mates dog over the bridge at mitre hut bridge. lab, mate was pulling , i was pushing, dog was growling and snappnig at me, so we left it walked across and encouraged it to swim, it was in high flood, dog swam and quickly disappeared down river... we were scouring the river bank couldnt find anything, then the dog is actually standing behind us looking to see what we're looking at...

@izogi, The bridge I'm referring to is downriver at the Waiohine Gorge roadend. That Totara Flats bridge was a bit loose goose too when the wind blew down the river, I think DOC even had signs up warning about the bridge when it was windy. DOC recently installed some additional stability cables that made quite a difference to the amount of swaying experienced. My best story about the Waiohine Gorge bridge was when I was taking my then girlfriend/future wife for a late summer cruisey tramp to Totara Flats. She's never had a great head for heights or edges, and I hadn't told her about the bridge, so she wasn't that impressed with me to start with when she saw the bridge. In an effort to comfort her with the bridge's safety I first took my pack across then returned for hers and dropped on the other side and returned to encourage her across. When I get back to her, she's steadfastly refusing to go over the bridge, despite my protestations about how safe it is. Apparently in my haste to transport packs across the bridge, she saw how much the bridge was moving around and that just wasn't safe for her. After about 5 minutes of increasingly tense discussion I finally got the fact that she wasn't moving and our packs were on the other side of the river. Two more return trips added to earlier trips meant I had crossed that bridge 8 times in about 20 minutes. The end result was that she wasn't going tramping at all that weekend so we ended up at the Solway for the weekend. Not quite what I had in mind (or could afford).

@nzbazza Classic ! And I guess my stunt with the collar and leash would've gone down a treat either :-)

Sydney morning herald are running the vid. no mention that DOC have since passed all other bridges after a safety inspection for the fault

@PhilipW, I enjoyed your story too, I've often wondered how dogs you couldn't carry handled the old wire bridges. A guy who I tramped with a bit had a Jack Russell and the dog got put into the top of the pack and the lid refastened so the dog had the head sticking out the side. It never seemed to mind getting a ride in the pack. Any connection between collars and leashes and girlfriends should probably belong on another website... ;)

"When I get back to her, she's steadfastly refusing to go over the bridge, despite my protestations about how safe it is. Apparently in my haste to transport packs across the bridge, she saw how much the bridge was moving around and that just wasn't safe for her. A" The trick is do it at night so she cant see its more than a metre above the water. A story thats off topic but relevent to the place was told to me by a scout leader. They had used the adjacent bank for a survival exercise that involved abseiling at night. Instructor had got there earlier and droped light sticks over the edge. The trainees got there and were given light sticks and told to look over the edge and they were to abseil down to the second stick. The sticks that were dropped earlier were 1/3 the size of the ones they were given

@izogi Here is a full but rough translation of the article. The article that follows is close to my heart/is emotional for me. After having met Adrien and Roland, we decided all four of us to go tramping for four days around Lake Waikaremoana. The walk went well and we were close to the end of the 46km track. We just had a last suspension bridge to cross. The sign said ‘maximum 10 people’. When we arrived at the middle of the bridge, we heard a loud sound, and before we knew what was happening, we were thrown into the air, having to accept whatever was coming our way. One of the two cables had broken/come loose. As soon as the shock of the water had gone away, I stood up slowly, made sure nothing was broken and looked around me to see where the others were. I saw Enzo standing up – that was a relief. Then I saw Adrien a little further away, amazed, like we were. I couldn’t see Roland though. I looked up and saw he was still on the bridge, by some miracle. I saw him making his way softly to the other side. We decided to cross the river quickly, in case the other cable broke and the whole bridge came down on top of us. The water was just up to our knees. Underneath the shock of it all, I pulled myself together and climbed up the hill on the bank to reach Roland. After this accident we met a number of people. DOC took our statements. Two members of the counsel of Tuhoe explained the complex history of the local land to us. They informed us we had fallen 8.5m in height into the water. Tuhoe, like many Maori, overcame colonisation and its wars, as well as the confiscation of their land. The government only lately has resumed its responsibilities and given some of the land back to the tribe. Many years ago it was voted that the land should go back to Tuhoe in order to respect their culture and traditions. Since DOC was brought into force, it’s been working under the watch of Tuhoe. The national park doesn’t have an owner – it’s set aside on its own and it’s a unique thing in the world. For a complete history of Tuhoe: http://www.ngaituhoe.iwi.nz/our-history So we still had many questions. Faced with their ‘part’ in being responsible for us, the Tuhoe people wanted to accompany us at every step. We went to Napier nearby where we spent a couple of days seeing doctors, resting and so on. I’m so relieved nobody was injured. By contrast, DOC even to this day has been of no help whatsoever. After taking our statements we asked a lot of questions about maintenance procedures for the infrastructure, but we haven’t been given any response. We’ve only learned the answers to our questions from the newspapers. This information should be shared to make sure the right thing is done. Not only to give information and to prevent accidents, but also to expose the entity that is DOC (which belongs to the Minister for the Environment). I’ll keep you posted on anything else that happens. Indeed, a couple of different people/organisations are making investigations to find out what caused the accident. I would advise all trampers strongly that no matter where they are in the world they should never underestimate the risk you encounter with crossing obstacles such as this. Think about each step on every obstacle and never play with/on anything that could be more fragile than you think. You’ll see here the photo of the bridge in question after the accident and three articles. (Two from the NZ Herald with two different dates and the press statement from Tuhoe.) NZ HERALD http://nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm… http://nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm… TUHOE http://www.ngaituhoe.iwi.nz