Shine Falls track: Engineer called in as project to reopen popular Hawke’s Bay trail begins

The Department of Conservation has announced the next project it is working on is the reopening of the Shine Falls walking track. The falls are pictured here before the cyclone. Photo / Glenn Taylor

The Department of Conservation’s next reopening project after Cyclone Gabrielle is the popular Shine Falls walking track, but it doesn’t have a clear date for it yet.

The track to one of Hawke’s Bay’s highest waterfalls was severely damaged in the February 2023 floods and has been closed since then.

Department of Conservation (DoC) senior ranger heritage and visitors Malcolm Lock said the site needed to remain closed until it was safe for the public to access.

“The base of the waterfall was changed significantly by the cyclone and there are a number of slips which pose a high risk to the public,” Lock said.

Over the past two years, the site needed time to “self-repair”, allowing for natural regeneration over the slips to “see where we could re-establish a suitable track”.

Lock said a new route had now been scoped out.

The next step in the process was for the Department of Conservation to carry out a full visitor risk assessment with an engineer.

“Once this is complete, we may look to involve volunteers to help, but we’re not yet at that stage,” Lock said.

Lock said that Shine Falls was a popular destination, and the department wanted to get it open as soon as possible, but it needed to be “absolutely sure that what they provide will be safe and sustainable for future generations”.

“We’ll keep the community informed as work progresses,” he said.

No decision had been made regarding the future of the Glenfalls Campsite, but the department had not given up on the site and had noted the public support and offers of help.

Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and spent the last 15 years working in radio and media in Auckland, London, Berlin and Napier.