Hard road back to Cave Creek

It took a huge effort to get Stephen Hannen (left) to the memorial. With him is Harry Pawsey, father of victim Kit Pawsey. Pictures / Simon Baker

Getting Cave Creek survivor Stephen Hannen out of the chasm where 14 others died 10 years ago was no easy task. Getting him back to the area yesterday proved difficult.

It was seven years since Mr Hannen, a wheelchair-bound tetraplegic, had been back to the remote site near Punakaiki, on the West Coast.

Yesterday, to mark the 10th anniversary of the tragedy, Mr Hannen's family "moved heaven, hell, high water and some rocks" to drive him as far as the large memorial stone, halfway down the track to the Cave Creek site, early yesterday morning.

"It's important to be here. It's important to me to try anyway," Mr Hannen said.

He was one of more than a hundred people directly affected when the Department of Conservation-built platform collapsed and fell 30m on April 28, 1995.

Fourteen people - 13 Tai Poutini Polytechnic students and one DoC worker - were killed. Four survived the fall, and three students and two polytech staff were present but not on the platform when it gave way.

Yesterday, they were all represented by family or friends at anniversary commemorations in Punakaiki and Greymouth. It was the first time since 1996 that the group had been together.

Harry and Virginia Pawsey lost their son Kit at Cave Creek. Since then they have been the glue holding the families together, organising the fight for compensation from the Government and making sure everyone kept in touch.

Not every family has been able to get through the tragedy in the same way the Pawseys have. "And some never will," Mr Pawsey said.

"Everyone deals with it in their own way, but we're all very close. It's an exclusive club - we just don't much like the entry fee."

For the Pawseys the trip back to Cave Creek is not just an annual event. They visit often, trekking the rugged 5km to the quiet chasm where their only son died.

"For us it's not a place of death. It's where Kit was last alive, it's a living place and it's a beautiful place. Even with the horror that happened here, for us, it is one of the most beautiful places we know."

Most of the families visited the site yesterday, leaving flowers and tributes to the 14 who died.

Ten years of regrowth have almost erased the gap left by the collapsed platform, but at the bottom of the quiet chasm the jagged rocks on to which the victims fell remain.

Beside them a dreamcatcher has been hung from a branch. It bears pictures of each victim and messages. High above it a lone fern stretches out from the chasm wall, its fronds providing a natural umbrella over where the platform came to rest.

On Wednesday, Caroline Smith, one of the four survivors, made the journey down to Cave Creek, where she found fellow survivor Stacy Mitchell enjoying the solitude.

Together they spent the day "remembering the good times".

Ms Smith, who prefers to be known as Kelly "because Caroline changed that day", has battled depression since the disaster.

Speaking at the commemoration ceremony yesterday she said her day with Mr Mitchell altered her perception of the event. "For the first time as I walked out I felt a weight had been lifted from my shoulders."

Wearing Kit's fleece jacket, Harry Pawsey spoke on the behalf of the victims' families' about the Book of Remembrance they had created, which was dedicated yesterday and will remain at the DoC Punakaiki office.

"Through it our children, our siblings, our friends will live again."