Hillside Magic
I listened to people raving about the Te Puna Quarry park for years before I got around to walking its tracks. “It’s fantastic,” my friend enthused.
It’s a hole in the side of a hill, I thought.
“What they’ve achieved is a miracle,” she said.
Like what? I wondered. What could anyone do with an abandoned quarry? All that gorse and bracken and blackberry and wild pine and hemlock and heaven knows what else to be got rid of, not to mention the piles of rusting machinery and shattered rock.
Mad, they’re all mad. The only thing to do with a disused quarry, in my mind, was ignore it and hope it would go away.
Luckily for the Bay of Plenty, there are people with greater vision than me.
Luckily for me, I decided to humour my insistent friend and go for a walk in the park. And from my first glimpse, I was hooked. How could I not be? We drove into the tree-shaded car park, and stopped beside a lichen-covered stone sculpture. I was a fan before I’d taken even one step on the walkways.
When we began walking, I was further impressed. The thickly-planted hillside rose upward, and the bowl of the quarry itself was sheltered and warm. An information board placed close to the car-park gate had helpful maps and brochures regarding the history of the park and the walkways that meander through its slopes.
Clutching a handful of the brochures we began walking the main, circular track. This loops up to the top level of the quarry and back down again. I discovered that it was a wide, easy track that took about an hour to cover, allowing for a few stops to catch our breath and admire the stunning views out to the Mount and up to the north. Dozens of side paths, steps, and tracks wound off to the left or right of the path, all leading to hidden delights or areas of the Park still in development.
Wherever we walked, we found something unexpected among the tree ferns, native trees and pines: A planting of orchids, for, instance, thousands of them flying delicate flags of colour in the shade of native trees; a bonsai garden; an old rusted-but-working water-wheel; tables and chairs tucked into shady spots for picnics or rests; a pathway made of terracotta tiles, all of which had been decorated by individuals.
Some of these tiles were simple etchings of butterflies or pukeko, or names carefully written in childish hands: ‘Serena was here 2003’ or ‘The Mason Family’. Others were works of art, but regardless of individual tiles, the effect of them all together, and of the whole path as it curved around a milky pond, was a delight. I always go back to this path when I return to the Park to see what new tiles have appeared.
In itself, the park is beautiful and the walks not too strenuous, but there are two things that make this a place of magic. Two things that keep drawing me back.
One is its sense of history - it’s impossible not to be struck by the past of this place. Scattered through the trees and shrubs are rusting relics of its working life –pieces of machinery that in some respects are meaningless to me. I can’t identify them, and have no idea of their original purpose. Strangely though, these derelict bits and pieces, that I once considered eyesores, fit their new setting.
I like that there’s no denying of the hard work of last century, when men carved out thousands of tons of rock.
But the Te Puna Quarry Park is a testament to the fact that man can repair, as well as ruin.
As impressive as all this is, the thing that draws me back, again and again to the quarry, is the artwork. Dreaming Stone by Simon Madgwick is a massive face lifted to the sun. I fell in love with this piece, but there are many other artworks and sculptures to be admired. Some are quirky, like the china man and woman, and the grinning caterpillar; and some are subtle, like the dragon rising out of the ground. Others are simply beautiful wall carvings which my fingers ache to stroke as I walk past.
So I do. Every time I go there.
From a distance, Te Puna Quarry Park looks to be little more than what its name suggests: the old and ugly gouge of a disused quarry, a scar in the side of the Kaimai hills softened somewhat by a blanket of spreading green.
Distance, though, doesn’t do this park justice: up close and personal is how you appreciate all that it has to offer.
The great magic of Te Puna Quarry Park is it is so much more than expected. A bit like life, really, if we so choose.
