paparoa great walk

It's what the majority of the families of the victims decided they wanted as a memorial.

From the herald article quoted above "Pike River Families Group Committee spokesman Bernie Monk said victims' families were very supportive of the memorial, and worked closely with the Government on its development." but from the Stuff article "John Key promised us he would recover our bodies no matter what. When that was a no go he promised to enter the mine and see if their remains were in the drift. When that became too hard we were railroaded into the Great Walk." If the families are ok with it then no problem but I suspect this isnt the whole story

Not all of the families necessarily agree with it. I'm not a fan of this at all actually. Why another great walk for tourists? I love the southern area of the Paparoas and don't really want it crawling with tourists. I don't believe this is the best way to remember those who died at Pike River.

Do you guys even click on the links provided by the Original Poster ?. The mine entrance will be on an 8km side track off the proposed 'Pike29 Memorial Track'. ""He said the Great Walk would bring new tourism and economic development opportunities to the West Coast of the South Island .... "" There are 2 additional 'proposed huts' on the map provided. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11545759 Probably is too soon for some, with the unresolved bodies in the mine issue ?. But hasn't anybody else here wandered the Brunner Mine site or hiked Cannibal Gorge on the St James ?. Gallipoli ?. Flanders ?. Dive the Rainbow Warrior ! Red Zone bus tours of Chch ?. Possibly a rahui required on the Pike Mine entrance track ?.

i'm just pointing out this scenario begs a lot of questions and debate that even some of the family of the deceased themselves are raising. what does going to pike river mine entrance have to do with trampers? build a track and trampers will tramp it regardless of the significance of the track.. so should we put great walks past our war memorials , the red cliffs? come and see the stunning entrance to the pike river mine, scene of the death of so many, how is it going to be plugged, because it will be plugged ad nauseum and it will be debated the existing DOC estate infrastructure is screaming out for money for existing maintenance, and all of a sudden the govt opens its war chest to trundle out another great walk, but lets not worry about the rest of the country... great walks are supposed to only be developed to minimise the impact of existing large no's of trampers on certain tracks.. that is not the case in this area at all. same for the proposed moonlight great walk next to queenstown..

"the existing DOC estate infrastructure is screaming out for money for existing maintenance, and all of a sudden the govt opens its war chest to trundle out another great walk" The $10 million being dropped onto DOC specifically for this Great Walk also sounds suspiciously similar to the $10 million that had been set aside for re-entering the mine, which never happened. http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/10535854/Pike-River-re-entry-feasible-for-at-least-a-year Is it victim-placating money?

Sounds like it.

Just crawled off the sickbed to the laptop to find out that there is going to be a 10th "Great Walk"! I've just read @izogi's blog post on the subject http://www.windy.gen.nz/index.php/archives/5598#more-5598 and to me this seems like the most important and pertinent bit about whether it should be considered a "Great Walk" or not: "Great Walks should only go to places where there’s already so much popularity that extra management is needed to protect the surrounding environment. To do so is also more consistent with the Conservation Act and National Parks Act, which require DOC to foster recreation but only to allow for tourism, and even moreso to protect the environment as a priority over recreation." By all means build a new high quality multi-purpose outdoor recreational track, (if that's what the Pike River victims families want), but let the people who use that track decide whether is a "great walk" or not. Some other things: DOC already have a "Great Walks" brochure on their website for the Pike29 memorial track, giving an opening date of 2018. This track is definitely happening! http://doc.govt.nz/Documents/parks-and-recreation/tracks-and-walks/west-coast/pike-29-memorial-track-brochure.pdf Looking at the proposed site route to the mine in the brochure and comparing that to the topo map, you leave the main ridge track at spot 1030 (BT20 716 237) and travel NE along a spur to spot 1122 before following the E spur to the bump at 746 446 and dropping steeply down then curving around to the N to meet the road to the mine memorial at 755 258. Total descent one way (and climb back) of approx. 1000-1100m (allowing for some of the other climbs/descents along the way). How many people will actually be bothered to walk the extra 8km side leg (5-6 hr est. for an "average" tramper) to the mine and back, rather than carry on to the next hut?

If they're pinning it to the coat-tails of the Great Walks, and the publicity/sell they receive, does that mean we're looking at booking ahead for huts & paying $50 a night ?. Is this effectively a toll walkway ?.

booking ahead , probably. most great walks are $30 a night, only fiordland has $50 huts, but its going to be an MTB track so it will have to be a very high standard track which will put up the maintenance costs.. 20 bunk huts and having MTBers and trampers is going to force up the competition for the 20 bunks per hut... i'm assuming the MTBing will only be outside of summer as it is on the Heaphy