"Through it our children, our siblings, our friends will live again." |
Reflecting:
After the viewing platform at Cave Creek collapsed, there were numerous questions and changes that affected the whole of New Zealand, but what happened to the track itself? In 1996, one year after the disaster, a memorial plaque was unveiled, halfway down the track to the Cave Creek site. This memorial is about 5km down a rugged track and is somewhere that families can reflect and remember the lives of their children and friends. While the Cave Creek track was reopened in 1998, three years after the disaster, the viewing platform was not rebuilt. DOC replaced the old stairs with new ones but at the site of the disaster there is a fence and the warning sign. People that have visited the Cave Creek site say that nowadays the actual site of the platform is hard to detect, but below in the gully there is a monument to recognise that fateful day - Friday the 28th of April 1995. It ensures the lives of these 14 people will always be remembered and that they will continue to be on the minds of New Zealanders. Footnote: 13. 'Hard road back to Cave Creek’ http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10122927 updated Friday Apr 29, 2005, visited 5 June 2013 |