TRACK TO THE FUTURE
It was 2019 and in the Paparoa Track’s new Pororari Hut, track builder Barry Gordon was enthusing about swales. The track was still under construction and I’d been invited for a sneak peep of what had been done so far. For water management, swales are the best new things, said Gordon.
“Swales are where you move the track around a bit with natural humps and hollows, and change the camber from in-slope to out-slope every 10 metres or so and the water just runs off,” he explained. “It means no invasive side drains that need maintenance to keep from blocking up, and no water running on the track, eroding it away. If we do need a culvert, in extra wet places, we hide it so you won’t see it, just like we’re rehabbing the trackside vegetation so the track isn’t intrusive.”
Rehabilitation was a contract condition, he says. “We only cut, prune or blast what we absolutely need to, then one of the crew follows the digger like a gardener, restoring the vegetation so the track looks like it’s always been there.”
It’s true, I decided, the next day as I followed the fern-lined trail, threading
