Relatives of the victims of Cave Creek are unable to mark the 25th anniversary because of Covid-19 restrictions.
A memorial at Cave Creek adorned with carefully chosen stones brought from the creek bed. Photo: SUPPLIED / DOC
The tragedy which killed 14 people led to significant changes in health and safety laws in New Zealand.
On the 28 April 1995, 17 students from the Tai Poutini Polytechnic were on a Department of Conservation (DOC) viewing platform when it collapsed and plunged into a gorge at Cave Creek near Punakaiki on the West Coast.
They fell more than 30 metres killing the 13 students and one DOC worker - four others were seriously injured.
Stephen Hannen is one of them - he has been a paraplegic since the accident.
In 1995 he and his sister Alicia talked about the aftermath of the platform's collapse in an interview provided by Ngā Taonga.
"Quite glad I don't remember, it's quite lucky probably," he said.
What he did recall was the drugs, and the vicious nightmares and hallucinations that came with them.
His sister Alicia filled in the gaps.
"What Stephen doesn't remember is that every time he woke up during that first five or six weeks he wouldn't remember what had happened and we would have to tell him again.
"So we would have to go through it all with him, that he had broken his back and been in an accident and that's why he couldn't feel his legs," she said.
"He would get upset and then he would settle down and have some more drugs and off he'd go again."
A memorial was held in Greymouth days later, where then prime minister Jim Bolger shared the shock, sorrow and grief New Zealand was struggling with.
"It's always difficult to know where to begin on such an occasion such as this, how to comfort those who are left behind in their grief after such a tragic accident," Bolger said in a 1995 speech, archived by Ngā Taonga.
"A tragic loss of young life."
Kit Pawsey was 17 when he was killed.
His mother Virginia said at times the disaster felt so long ago, and other times it felt like just yesterday.
She said Covid-19 and the lockdown had made this year harder for all the families.
"We had planned to open the Cave Creek memorial walkway and unveil some panels beside the memorial stone telling people what had happened on the day and how it happened.
"We were going to meet with all the families, and that's all been postponed and that's a disappointment for all of us."
A memorial service for the victims of the Cave Creek tragedy held in Greymouth in 2015. Photo: RNZ / Patrick Phelps
She and her husband would instead be spending the day with their daughter to remember Kit.
She described him as a unique "one-off" who loved the polytech and returned home after the first term with dreadlocks.
Kit would have been 42 this year.
"It's quite hard looking at other 42-year-olds that he went to school with, and went to the polytech with.
"I think every parent there and every sibling will be wondering what their brothers and sister would have looked like, what they would have been doing 25 years on.
"I think that is quite a hard reminisce"
The most important thing this year was the response from the Department of Conservation, she said.
"They are reinforcing lessons learnt from Cave Creek so such an accident will never happen again," Virginia said.
"I think that's the most important outcome of the Cave Creek tragedy that DOC's structures are now safe and people can step onto them with complete confidence that they are not going to fall down as the Cave Creek platform did.
"And that's the legacy of all those who died at Cave Creek."
DOC Director-General Lou Sanson spoke to the staff reminding them of the accident and its importance.
Sanson told Morning Report his condolences and heartfelt wishes went out to all those affected.
"It was like staff grieved all over the country, we could not believe this happened. We were out there with such an incredible bunch of young people in the outdoor leadership recreation course ... and it was just something we lived with for years.
"But out of it, we realised we had to restore the faith of the public in the agency, and that was probably some of the most satisfying work we did. We worked on a whole new system of accountability, of visitor safety, and quality assurance standards."
Bolger brought in an advisor who subsequently got Australian Rio Tinto consultants to do assessments, Sanson said.
"We had a culture that was doing more with less and we had to completely change that culture," he said.
"Over time, we rebuilt the organisation. The whole organisation is built on the shoulders of those people at Cave Creek and I feel tragic about that but our systems are built out of Cave Creek.
"I just want all of our staff to recognise how those people, who have lost their lives and those that were injured, are such an important part of our DNA."
Once the Covid-19 restrictions are lifted, DOC and the families will hold the commemorative service that was scheduled for the anniversary.
