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Max Smith and the legend of the lake
With the National Champs approaching, it’s a perfect time to tell the incredible story of the man who literally put Twizel and Lake Ruataniwha on the map.
There’s only one way to the boat park once you turn off the great State Highway 8 at Twizel. And that’s along Max Smith Drive.
For 40 years it’s been the gateway to the National Rowing Championships at Lake Ruataniwha. Some days you’ll see Fred Strachan trundling along it on his mobility cart or younger athletes cycling along it to training throughout the summer break and beyond.
Max Smith is the conduit by which you come and go.
It was once a no-name road to nowhere; until Max got the heavy machinery rolling on what was thought to be the largest earthmoving project in the world at the time.
Rick Ramsay was a fresh young journo when he drove along the gravel road to his new job as Project Information Manager for the then Ministry of Works’ Upper Waitaki hydro scheme.
By then, the mammoth project linking Lakes Pukaki, Tekapo and Ohau to Benmore by river and canal – and the construction of four newly minted power stations - was well underway, with Twizel as its hub and beating heart.
“When I came here in ‘77”, says Rick, “the town was just reaching its peak population which was very close to 5800...biggest primary school in New Zealand, a thousand kids...a hundred different social clubs and sporting organisations...it was a real humming place because it worked around the clock.”
And it wasn’t just the machines turbo-charged project manager Max Smith had humming day and night.
“Everybody thinks the Ministry of Works were a pack of useless bastards who stood on their shovels,” says Rick. “Well, I can tell you, you weren't standing around holding a shovel if Max was around.”
Rick’s office was just across the hallway from the big dog.
Max rarely shut his door and his telephone conversations with bureaucrats in Wellington were often at HEIGHTENED VOLUME. Rick heard a lot of things.
The turbo-charged project manager of the Upper Waitaki Hydro scheme, Max Smith, on Lake Ruataniwha’s opening day.
Rick also got his name on the circulation list for viewing all the engineering files and reports. The Programme Information Manager quickly became the Master of Information on the Project. Still is.
There’s a myth that Max went rogue in creating Ruataniwha as a rowing course, which Rick is keen to dispel.
“The rowing course was known to everyone,” says Rick. “The Minister opened Lake Ruataniwha and the rowing course at the official opening [in 1982].
Rather, the lake had been formed as an engineering solution to make the whole system flood proof and more than a few old rowers spotted an opportunity.
And Max saw opportunity everywhere with the project.
“One of the difficulties Max and I got into was that he had this vision that the Upper Waitaki would be a what he called a ‘hydro park’ where the public had access to all the riverbeds,” says Rick.
“So, I produced this brochure called the Mackenzie Hydro Parks brochure. I knew there was going to be trouble over this because it wasn't authorised by anyone apart from Max, and the New Zealand Electricity Department said, ‘Hang on a moment we never said we wanted a hydro park up there.’”
Inspectors were sent down to make sure every last brochure was binned.
“But I'd seen this coming,” says Rick, “and I knew a local lady who ran the Mt Cook Landline bus depot and gave them to her to hide.
“Then the NZED had second thoughts about it all and thought it wasn't such a bad thing after all...so we got it reprinted, and it was called the Mackenzie Hydro Lakes brochure with the word park removed and lake substituted and we then printed another 100,000 of them.”
That was Max all over.
He had “this total approach to, ‘We are not just engineers building a hydro scheme, we are building assets and things that the public of New Zealand can value.’
“He wanted his engineers to be what he called ‘landscapers with bulldozers.’”
At Max’s instigation they created picnic areas, reserves, access roads and recreation facilities. Kellands Pond at Ruataniwha was built from disused gravel pits and now teems with birdlife.
The completed Lake Ruataniwha with Kellands Pond at bottom left of picture and the Wairepo arm across to the right. Max Smith added these features to create wildlife and recreational areas within the giant infrastructure scheme.
There are campground sites like the ones at Falstone, a jetty at Port Bryson on Lake Ohau. The lagoon at Ruataniwha was Max’s idea, so young kids could play in safe, shallow waters.
“There were wildlife areas created in ponds down the Pukaki riverbed that most people have probably never seen,” says Rick. “He built a fish pass on the Ohau weir which got him into a bit of trouble because nobody had asked for a fish pass but he built one anyway.”
“Some of this stuff was on the fly, directly opposite the Rowing Control Building at Ruataniwha there's a series of enclaves where boulders have been placed so birds don't get disturbed by powerboats. Most people wouldn't realise that was created for that purpose. But nobody drew a plan and said, ‘Build that there.’”
And when a delegation from the ice-skating community came looking for possible places to build an international standard rink, Max and his team got the bulldozers out. The rink never eventuated but a visit from another delegation did bear fruit.
“Max had these two guys turn up one day and he said to me, ‘Show them around the job would you’, and I'm pretty sure it was Tris Hegglun and Charlie Saunders.
Tris was in the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force in Egypt during the Second World War, he famously rowed in the Kiwi contingent that beat the Cairo Rowing Club on the Nile in 1943 which led to the gifting of a trophy, later to become the Maadi Cup.
Charlie was member of the first New Zealand Eight that went to the Olympics, at Los Angeles in 1932.
As part of the South Island Rowing Association, they had the bit between their teeth, dispatching letters to MPs and other officials in Wellington with the aim of building the “finest Rowing Course in the World” at Ruataniwha.
“What I think they found in Max was a kindred spirit who could actually turn those ideas into reality,” says Rick. “He probably wouldn't have come up with that on his own, but he might have.”
Once the rowing course got the green light, Max put the full force of the MoW teams behind it.
“We had a young mechanical engineer Chris Meale* and Max sent him up to check out how Karapiro worked and he came back and basically said, ‘Well this is what we need.’”
The earthworks team put in the 500m island, dug the trenches for all the cabling, the mechanical engineers drew up the trolleys for the start, and they were welded up and galvanised, they built a concrete peninsula on the lakebed for starting gates at the 1000m.
One installation did not get Max’s go ahead.
“There's one joke around where Max got beaten by his own team before the lake was formed,” says Rick. “He wanted Ruataniwha to be non-powerboat. But when the guys in the drafting office, who were all into water-skiing, heard about this they went and laid out a water ski slalom course in the bottom of the lake about opposite the rowing control building.
“They had these buoys all tied down in the scrub and the bush and stuff, and eventually the lake fills up, and then pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, up comes the ski slalom course with the Lake Ruataniwha Ski Club claiming responsibility.”
The Ohau River flows through the site of what will become Lake Ruataniwha.
The water from Ohau A (bottom left) gradually filling the basin that will become Lake Ruataniwha. You can see the 100m structure and the bulldozed area on the top left where the lagoon will form.
And to put right another myth about Max, it was one installation that partly led to his downfall as head of the project.
“So then we get to the rowing centre,” says Rick. “Max had said, “Well look I'll build it but you guys will have to pay us back’. And so this raffle was organised...unfortunately it didn’t generate enough funds to actually pay for the building. And that's where the trouble started for Max because then he was accused of unauthorised expenditure of public funds.”
Rick reckons, with the project nearing completion, it was a convenient way to move Max on.
“I remember at his farewell, a guy from head office coming down because somebody had to come down and say a few words and basically said, ‘You needed a guy like Max to start a project of this magnitude [and] to complete a project of this magnitude, but you don't want them around at the end, because there isn't one.’”
Rick never left Twizel: “Time flies when you’re having fun.”
He is still in awe of the scale and ambition of the Upper Waitaki scheme.
“You know, the machinery that was here, even the, the Ministry of Works machinery was going through 22,000 gallons of diesel a day. That was just our plant, and that would have been like 20 percent of the plant on the project. It was absolutely massive, and you lived through it, you lived in a construction town, and it just seemed the norm. And now you look back and think, ‘Jesus, we could achieve stuff in those days. What's gone wrong with us now that we can't even build a hospital in Dunedin?’”
There’s only one way to the boat park once you turn off the great State Highway 8 at Twizel. And that’s along Max Smith Drive.
As it turns out, it really was, and still is, Max Smith’s way or the highway.
*Chris Meale went on to become the Project Director of Auckland’s City Rail Link between 2012-17.
Andy Hay
Andy Hay is a freelance producer, writer and rowing coach. He was cox of the world champion New Zealand eight of 1982 and '83. He is NZ Olympian #446.
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- Home
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- Officials, Umpires &...
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- Max Smith and...
Max Smith and the legend of the lake
With the National Champs approaching, it’s a perfect time to tell the incredible story of the man who literally put Twizel and Lake Ruataniwha on the map.
There’s only one way to the boat park once you turn off the great State Highway 8 at Twizel. And that’s along Max Smith Drive.
For 40 years it’s been the gateway to the National Rowing Championships at Lake Ruataniwha. Some days you’ll see Fred Strachan trundling along it on his mobility cart or younger athletes cycling along it to training throughout the summer break and beyond.
Max Smith is the conduit by which you come and go.
It was once a no-name road to nowhere; until Max got the heavy machinery rolling on what was thought to be the largest earthmoving project in the world at the time.
Rick Ramsay was a fresh young journo when he drove along the gravel road to his new job as Project Information Manager for the then Ministry of Works’ Upper Waitaki hydro scheme.
By then, the mammoth project linking Lakes Pukaki, Tekapo and Ohau to Benmore by river and canal – and the construction of four newly minted power stations - was well underway, with Twizel as its hub and beating heart.
“When I came here in ‘77”, says Rick, “the town was just reaching its peak population which was very close to 5800...biggest primary school in New Zealand, a thousand kids...a hundred different social clubs and sporting organisations...it was a real humming place because it worked around the clock.”
And it wasn’t just the machines turbo-charged project manager Max Smith had humming day and night.
“Everybody thinks the Ministry of Works were a pack of useless bastards who stood on their shovels,” says Rick. “Well, I can tell you, you weren't standing around holding a shovel if Max was around.”
Rick’s office was just across the hallway from the big dog.
Max rarely shut his door and his telephone conversations with bureaucrats in Wellington were often at HEIGHTENED VOLUME. Rick heard a lot of things.
The turbo-charged project manager of the Upper Waitaki Hydro scheme, Max Smith, on Lake Ruataniwha’s opening day.
Rick also got his name on the circulation list for viewing all the engineering files and reports. The Programme Information Manager quickly became the Master of Information on the Project. Still is.
There’s a myth that Max went rogue in creating Ruataniwha as a rowing course, which Rick is keen to dispel.
“The rowing course was known to everyone,” says Rick. “The Minister opened Lake Ruataniwha and the rowing course at the official opening [in 1982].
Rather, the lake had been formed as an engineering solution to make the whole system flood proof and more than a few old rowers spotted an opportunity.
And Max saw opportunity everywhere with the project.
“One of the difficulties Max and I got into was that he had this vision that the Upper Waitaki would be a what he called a ‘hydro park’ where the public had access to all the riverbeds,” says Rick.
“So, I produced this brochure called the Mackenzie Hydro Parks brochure. I knew there was going to be trouble over this because it wasn't authorised by anyone apart from Max, and the New Zealand Electricity Department said, ‘Hang on a moment we never said we wanted a hydro park up there.’”
Inspectors were sent down to make sure every last brochure was binned.
“But I'd seen this coming,” says Rick, “and I knew a local lady who ran the Mt Cook Landline bus depot and gave them to her to hide.
“Then the NZED had second thoughts about it all and thought it wasn't such a bad thing after all...so we got it reprinted, and it was called the Mackenzie Hydro Lakes brochure with the word park removed and lake substituted and we then printed another 100,000 of them.”
That was Max all over.
He had “this total approach to, ‘We are not just engineers building a hydro scheme, we are building assets and things that the public of New Zealand can value.’
“He wanted his engineers to be what he called ‘landscapers with bulldozers.’”
At Max’s instigation they created picnic areas, reserves, access roads and recreation facilities. Kellands Pond at Ruataniwha was built from disused gravel pits and now teems with birdlife.
The completed Lake Ruataniwha with Kellands Pond at bottom left of picture and the Wairepo arm across to the right. Max Smith added these features to create wildlife and recreational areas within the giant infrastructure scheme.
There are campground sites like the ones at Falstone, a jetty at Port Bryson on Lake Ohau. The lagoon at Ruataniwha was Max’s idea, so young kids could play in safe, shallow waters.
“There were wildlife areas created in ponds down the Pukaki riverbed that most people have probably never seen,” says Rick. “He built a fish pass on the Ohau weir which got him into a bit of trouble because nobody had asked for a fish pass but he built one anyway.”
“Some of this stuff was on the fly, directly opposite the Rowing Control Building at Ruataniwha there's a series of enclaves where boulders have been placed so birds don't get disturbed by powerboats. Most people wouldn't realise that was created for that purpose. But nobody drew a plan and said, ‘Build that there.’”
And when a delegation from the ice-skating community came looking for possible places to build an international standard rink, Max and his team got the bulldozers out. The rink never eventuated but a visit from another delegation did bear fruit.
“Max had these two guys turn up one day and he said to me, ‘Show them around the job would you’, and I'm pretty sure it was Tris Hegglun and Charlie Saunders.
Tris was in the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force in Egypt during the Second World War, he famously rowed in the Kiwi contingent that beat the Cairo Rowing Club on the Nile in 1943 which led to the gifting of a trophy, later to become the Maadi Cup.
Charlie was member of the first New Zealand Eight that went to the Olympics, at Los Angeles in 1932.
As part of the South Island Rowing Association, they had the bit between their teeth, dispatching letters to MPs and other officials in Wellington with the aim of building the “finest Rowing Course in the World” at Ruataniwha.
“What I think they found in Max was a kindred spirit who could actually turn those ideas into reality,” says Rick. “He probably wouldn't have come up with that on his own, but he might have.”
Once the rowing course got the green light, Max put the full force of the MoW teams behind it.
“We had a young mechanical engineer Chris Meale* and Max sent him up to check out how Karapiro worked and he came back and basically said, ‘Well this is what we need.’”
The earthworks team put in the 500m island, dug the trenches for all the cabling, the mechanical engineers drew up the trolleys for the start, and they were welded up and galvanised, they built a concrete peninsula on the lakebed for starting gates at the 1000m.
One installation did not get Max’s go ahead.
“There's one joke around where Max got beaten by his own team before the lake was formed,” says Rick. “He wanted Ruataniwha to be non-powerboat. But when the guys in the drafting office, who were all into water-skiing, heard about this they went and laid out a water ski slalom course in the bottom of the lake about opposite the rowing control building.
“They had these buoys all tied down in the scrub and the bush and stuff, and eventually the lake fills up, and then pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, up comes the ski slalom course with the Lake Ruataniwha Ski Club claiming responsibility.”
The Ohau River flows through the site of what will become Lake Ruataniwha.
The water from Ohau A (bottom left) gradually filling the basin that will become Lake Ruataniwha. You can see the 100m structure and the bulldozed area on the top left where the lagoon will form.
And to put right another myth about Max, it was one installation that partly led to his downfall as head of the project.
“So then we get to the rowing centre,” says Rick. “Max had said, “Well look I'll build it but you guys will have to pay us back’. And so this raffle was organised...unfortunately it didn’t generate enough funds to actually pay for the building. And that's where the trouble started for Max because then he was accused of unauthorised expenditure of public funds.”
Rick reckons, with the project nearing completion, it was a convenient way to move Max on.
“I remember at his farewell, a guy from head office coming down because somebody had to come down and say a few words and basically said, ‘You needed a guy like Max to start a project of this magnitude [and] to complete a project of this magnitude, but you don't want them around at the end, because there isn't one.’”
Rick never left Twizel: “Time flies when you’re having fun.”
He is still in awe of the scale and ambition of the Upper Waitaki scheme.
“You know, the machinery that was here, even the, the Ministry of Works machinery was going through 22,000 gallons of diesel a day. That was just our plant, and that would have been like 20 percent of the plant on the project. It was absolutely massive, and you lived through it, you lived in a construction town, and it just seemed the norm. And now you look back and think, ‘Jesus, we could achieve stuff in those days. What's gone wrong with us now that we can't even build a hospital in Dunedin?’”
There’s only one way to the boat park once you turn off the great State Highway 8 at Twizel. And that’s along Max Smith Drive.
As it turns out, it really was, and still is, Max Smith’s way or the highway.
*Chris Meale went on to become the Project Director of Auckland’s City Rail Link between 2012-17.
Andy Hay
Andy Hay is a freelance producer, writer and rowing coach. He was cox of the world champion New Zealand eight of 1982 and '83. He is NZ Olympian #446.
