Benny King sent in a video of him jumping - badly - from the Maraetotara Falls branch. The landing was “a real stinger”, but he had a great time. Video / Benny King
A council has removed tree branches allowing a rope swing to be hung over at a popular summer cool-off waterfall in Hawke’s Bay because swinging into the pool below has been deemed too risky.
Miriam Wilkinson and her family visit Maraetotara Falls three to four times a week during summer.
“The kids love it. It’s a beautiful spot and they love swinging from the rope into the water below,” Wilkinson said.
However, the family was astounded to discover a couple of weeks before Christmas that some branches of the large tree hanging over the water, along with a rope swing used to dive into the pool below, had been removed.
She phoned Hastings District Council and was initially told she should call DoC, before some helpful back and forth directed her back to Hastings District Council as the custodian of the falls.
A family of frequent visitors to Maraetotara Falls are not happy Hastings District Council has removed branches and a rope from a tree used by hundreds of people to jump into the water. Photo / Ian Cooper
So she rang Hastings council back.
“They said the branches and rope had been removed because of a health and safety issue following Cyclone Gabrielle,” Wilkinson said.
“This really bugged me. Why would it take nearly two years to decide it was risky?
“My older children jumped from the rope all the time. I have never been worried about their safety. But now they are climbing higher to find somewhere to jump from and that does worry me.”
A spokesperson for the Hastings District Council said they were removed in December 2024 following a risk assessment. It wasn’t the first time it had “removed unsafe ropes from the tree”, the spokesperson said.
“A risk assessment was completed by in-house teams, including parks and reserves and health and safety,” the spokesperson said.
“This was further to an initial post-Cyclone Gabrielle inspection, which noted considerable damage from the cyclone.
“The most recent inspections [October] led to further clearing of the stream bed and a recommendation that the tree branch over a popular swimming hole be removed, given the risk to users.
“While signs advised of the risk, ropes on the branch and ‘ladders’ leading up the tree to it had been removed several times but continued to be reinstated by members of the public, so council staff recommended the branch be removed to further mitigate the risk.”
The work was carried out on December 5 and 6.
The spokesperson said there was a swimming death in the area in 2018.
On December 21, 2018, 20-year-old Aman Kumar Aman failed to resurface from a dive off the falls.
“There may have been other injuries not reported to council, however, it should be noted that health and safety risk assessments and any resulting actions to mitigate risk are not solely reliant on a history of injuries or deaths, rather they are about looking forward to identifying risk (while noting that adverse occurrences do have an impact on them),” the spokesperson said.
Wilkinson said the beauty of Maraetotara Falls continues to be promoted using the now non-existent rope swing.
Just a few days ago she had seen a promotional social media post for Hawke’s Bay tourism, advertising the falls as a hidden gem and showing the rope swing.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
