Cableway Across Otira River

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31143, 20 August 1966, Page 7

Cableway Across Otira River

The recently-completed cableway across the Otira river at Aickens will be formally opened and handed over to the Arthur’s Pass National Park Board at a ceremony on September 16 in the Lands and Survey Department building. The cableway will be known as the Brian Morrison Memorial Crossing, in memory of Mr Morrison who was killed in a motor-car accident near Tekapo in 1962.

Mr Morrison, formerly of Wellington, was a civil engineer with the Christchurch City Council at the time of his death. The idea of a memorial was fostered among his friends and relations in Wellington and Christchurch who considered some amenity in a national park would be appropriate. The organisers of the appeal approached the Arthur’s Pass National Board, and on the board’s suggestion the idea of a cableway was adopted, Mr P. D. Anderson, a civil engineer of Christchurch and friend of Mr Morrison, became honorary designing engineer and organiser of the project. An appeal for funds was launched and the money raised qualified for a two-for-one subsidy from the park board. Work began on the scheme about two years ago. Materials for the cablewaycost more than £BOO, and all labour was given by members of the University of Canterbury and Christchurch Tramping Clubs, the New Zealand Alpine Club and the Canterbury Mountaineering Club. They were assisted by park board rangers. The Youth Hostels Association provided free accommodation for work parties at the Kelly’s creek hostel. The site of the cableway is about a quarter of a mile east of the Aickens Post Office, five miles from Otira. It is outside the area of the park board on land owned by Mr E. Evans, a farmer. Mr Evans made available equipment and machinery for the work.

The cableway will provide access across the Otira river for parties coming down either the Taramakau or Deception rivers. This means that the cableway provides a safe exit for many crossings from the Canterbury side of the Alps. The Harper Pass crossing from Lake Sumner, and passes from the Poulter, Hawdon. Edwards and Mingha rivers all lead to either the Taramakau or Deception, and thence to the Otira. Mr Anderson inspected the site of the crossing in 1962 with members of the park board, local farmers, and members of the Search and Rescue Organisation. It was decided that the only practic-

able site between the Deception and Taramakau rivers was about a quarter of a mile below the Aickens railway station. At this point the river flows in two channels on opposite sides of the valley with a large island between. The channels are crossed separately with two cableways, one of 610 ft span, and the other of 465 ft. Because of the unstable nature of the river channels the two cableways have been sited so that they can, if necessary, be joined by adding more spans in the future. However, the island appears to have been in its present position for at least 20 years, and this is supported by local knowledge. The cableway has been designed to carry one man and his pack, or 2501 b of equipment. An injured man on a stretcher can also be easily carried, as the carriage has been built to suit the search and rescue organisation’s stretchers. Each cable is tensioned with a counterweight fiveton block of concrete giving a constant tension in the cable whatever the position of the carriage or the load being carried. The sag decreases as the carriage approaches the end towers. This makes it much easier for the operator to wind the carriage across than is the case on the fixedlength type of cableway where the carriage must be wound up a steeply-sloping wire as it approaches the end towers. The carriage can be pedalled by the person crossing, or by a person at either end. The gearing on the banks is twice as high as that on the carriage, making for a faster crossing when operated from either end. One cable is anchored to a tree on the far side of the river from the main road and goes to a 30ft tower on the island in the river. There is a walk of about 440 yards across the island to the second tower; then there is a cable to a third tower on the main road bank. The cableway is of steel construction, the tower foundations being set in concrete 4ft below the surface.