Tākaka on fire at challenge

GB Community Board

Golden Bay Community Board’s monthly meeting took place on Monday afternoon at Tasman District Council Service Centre in Tākaka. But the focus was very much on Pōhara with the majority of discussion concerned with a shared pathway through the township and a new overarching plan for Port Tarakohe.

Public Forum

All four contributors to public forum spoke about Tasman District Council’s proposed shared pathway which has been designed to occupy the shoulder of Abel Tasman Drive, starting from Totally Roasted, running alongside the outside of the campground fence and past the On the Spot store, before continuing to Pōhara Valley Road.

Store owner Dave Hix was the first to make his case. Criticising the plan which includes the loss of parking spaces immediately in front of the shop, Dave said there had been little meaningful engagement with council. “We were not consulted properly – it came as a big surprise to us.” He was also very concerned about the implications for cyclist and pedestrian safety. “There are seven to eight trucks a day parked unloading when it gets busy.” He believed the proposed parking arrangements would make access to the store “tricky and inconvenient” for customers, and urged TDC to look at alternatives. “Please pause and reconsider other options.”

Are you tough enough? Tākaka Volunteer Fire Brigade (TVFB) demonstrated that they are, at the recent South Island Firefighter Challenge in Christchurch – with a near clean sweep across the male categories.

Most notable was team captain Kyle Gardiner's first place in the Open Male category – with a scorching time of 1 min 39.35 secs. Kyle tells The GB Weekly, “I started training in November, and a lot of hard work paid off.”

The Firefighter Challenge is described as the firefighter “Iron Man” contest and is known as the being “the toughest two minutes in sport”. Wearing full firefighting gear and breathing apparatus (weighing about 20kg), competitors race against each other and the clock in a series of tasks across the course.

The five tasks are:

• Climbing a six-storey tower carrying a length of 70mm, 19kg flaked hose.

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• Hoisting a 70mm hose coil six storeys. Chopping using a 4kg shot hammer to drive a beam 1.5 metres. Extending a charged length of 45mm hose to knock down a disc.

• Dragging a life-sized dummy (weighing about 85kg) a distance of 30.5m.

The competition is designed to be a test of skill and fitness and is intended to simulate the physical demands of real-life firefighting. Building up to the competition, the team trains up to three times a week, including using the Fonterra tower for stair running.

The occasion was particularly significant for Kyle, as he was presented with his “Lion’s Den” jacket by his father – long-serving Tākaka volunteer firefighter Neil Gardiner. To earn Lion’s Den status, males in the Open category need to complete the tasks in under 1min 40 secs. In 2019, Kyle travelled to the USA and became the youngest ever competitor to reach

Lion’s Den status. However, until the South Island champs prizegiving, there were no opportunities to formally present the jacket.

Said Neil on presenting the jacket to Kyle, “This is one the greatest moments in my life. It’s something everyone can aspire to do. So, push yourselves, train, and go out and do it.”

Neil is extremely proud of how the fire brigade performed. “We punch above our weight. We are a small rural brigade up against career, industrial, and defence force brigades. In particular, I would like to shout out to TVFB newcomer Greg Fellowes, who came first in the Over 60s Male and Team Relay categories.”

Next up for the TVFB are the national championships, which will be held in Wellington in six weeks’ time. Neil says that the goal is “just to do our very best, that’s all that we can ask of each other. We will train hard up until that point.”

More photos and full results on page 5

The owner of Pōhara Top 10 Holiday Park Gene Cooper shared Dave’s safety concerns and also criticised TDC for its lack of consultation. The location of the shared pathway means that angled parking will no longer be possible along Abel Tasman Drive (although it is in fact illegal) and the 100-vehicle capacity will be much reduced with parallel parking only. Gene fears that this will force people to park elsewhere, just “shifting the problem”.

Appearing on the Zoom screen a member of Foodstuffs property team Rebecca Parish echoed the sentiments of the previous two speakers. “We have reviewed the shared pathway and are concerned that it will result in safety issues. It shouldn’t be in front of the store as it will endanger customers and cyclists.” Referring to the location of the store as “a cluttered, high use area” Rebecca asked TDC to revisit its plan. “Council should pause on this and look at alternative routes, and I implore council to investigate further. It’s not safe.”

Continued on page 3