Blog - Local News
RWC 2011 Roadshow in Greymouth
Christchurch turned up with the biggest crowds of the Roadshow so far with close to 2,000 visitors.
Read the full postDenniston Experience on hold
The $3.1 million Denniston Experience, a coal mine tour and New Zealand’s first underground museum, due to open tomorrow on the West Coast, has been put on hold at the last minute. The Greymouth Star reports that, in light of the Pike River tragedy, Department of Conservation Buller area manager Bob Dickson says the tourist attraction will now get a soft opening on 07MAR. “It will be a very soft start-up with just our normal marketing such as our web page, brochures and the i-SITEs.”
DoC will run the Denniston Experience for the first few months but will later look at employing a concessionaire to take over the operation. Substantial changes had been made to the visitor experience at Denniston, however the railway line and Banbury Mine would not open for another month.
Day for quiet reflection
Six months ago today the West Coast was reeling in disbelief at news that the West Coast’s great economic hope, the Pike River coal mine, had exploded and 29 men were missing. Six months on and very little has changed — the bodies of the 29 men still lie in darkness somewhere beneath the Paparoa Range, there are still weekly talks with the victims’ families parroting how it is unsafe to enter the mine to retrieve the bodies, and 43 local contractors are daily struggling to make ends meet without the $5 million they are owed by the coal company. And still there are no answers.
Read the full postShantytown launches Holographic Theatre Show
Shantytown has launched its new Holographic Theatre Show, part of a suite of improvements designed to enhance the visitor experience within the Shantytown Heritage Park on the West Coast. The shows are 10 minutes in length and use the latest technology to project full length, high definition holographic figures who tell fantastic stories of murder, hardship, extreme weather, deprivation and isolation that make the character of the West Coast truly unique. The Theatre is themed on a Victorian theatre, with lush opulence, colonnades, generous curtaining and original (restored to be comfortable) seating.
Read the full postThe Glacier Rugby Experience Competition
Glacier Country Tourism, with support from sponsors, has launched The Glacier Rugby Experience Competition to lift the profile of the West Coast region leading into Rugby World Cup. With a total prize package valued at $50,000, including a 12-day Luxury Prize Pack for the winner and six mates, who will get to play the current Glacier Rugby champions on the No.2 Ground on Fox Glacier, should be enough to entice entries from around the world. Entry details are on You Tube (www.youtube.com/glaciercountry) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/glaciercountrytourism)
Read the full postMakeover for Monteith's Brewery
West Coast brewery Monteith’s is to get a multi-million dollar redevelopment aimed at offering a visitor experience that fully reflects the unique heritage and personality of both the 143-year-old brewery and Greymouth. Currently 16,500 people visit the Greymouth brewery each year but Monteith’s Brewery manager, Tony Mercer expects that figure to rise to
40,000 by 2014.
KiwiRail resumes TranzAlpine trips
The TranzAlpine train resumed running between Christchurch and Greymouth yesterday. Both it and TranzCoastal were suspended following the Christchurch earthquake on 22FEB.
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