Two protesters who have spent three weeks in a giant coal bucket high above the native bush of the Denniston Plateau have now descended.
Rach Andrews and Tāmati Taptiklis from Climate Liberation Aotearoa abseiled in via the aerial ropeway, which was normally used to carry coal away from the mine in giant metal buckets, on July 27, in protest of Bathurst Resources application under the Fast Track Approvals Bill to further mine the Denniston Plateau.
Speaking to RNZ from their temporary home in one of the buckets earlier on Tuesday, Andrews said it had been a worthy cause.
"The Denniston Plateau is a beautiful, unique landscape, 40 million years old, and there's just gorgeous lifeforms there that have adapted and evolved to really thrive in these harsh conditions.
"I want that to be a wild place that my grandchildren and their children get to experience."
The other part of it, she said, was the emissions.
"We can't afford to burn the fossil fuels that are already above the ground - to extract more and more and more is to put humanity on a suicide path.
"I don't want to be a person that stood by and let that happen."
Protesters used the aerial ropeway cables as a zip line to access a coal bucket high off the ground. Photo: Supplied
Costing $27,000 a day, Bathurst Resources says
Their actions had caused major disruption to Bathurst Resources.
The company previously told RNZ it was having to transport coal by trucks while the cableway was occupied.
On Tuesday, chief executive officer of Bathurst Resources Richard Tacon told RNZ in a statement the cost of trucking coal out of the mine was $27,000 a day - "to ensure we can continue the employment of 400 people over this period".
He said the determent measures were justified.
"This is not a holiday rental they booked and now the neighbours have gotten noisy. This is a coal conveyance system that is not designed to transport or house people."
He had previously acknowledged the right to protest, but said climbing into coal buckets was dangerous.
"The organisers have no idea of the inherent risks associated with this equipment. Yet, they have assisted to get these people into this position and have now abandoned them to the elements and those risks.
"We cannot go out to where they are. The organisers have not allowed communications with the trespassers by us or the police.
"The police only have contact via backroom people who are safely located on solid ground."
On August 5, Andrews and Taptiklis reported three shotgun shots were fired into the air near their bucket.
Taptiklis told RNZ at the time he could see a person about 250 metres away in a Bathurst Resources uniform, walking away and lowering a long, thin object.
RNZ put these claims to Bathurst Resources chief executive Richard Tacon, who rejected them.
"No firearms were let off at any time."
Stockton Mine, north of Westport, is owned by Bathurst Resources. Photo: Supplied/ Bathurst Resources
On Tuesday, when Andrews spoke to RNZ from her spot above the trees, a siren could be heard in the background.
"We experienced that when we were here at Easter as well. The siren has been going for two weeks, 24-7. It's just kind of background noise for us now.
"Of course it's uncomfortable, but it's nothing in comparison to what people are already facing due to the climate crisis."
They had brought in everything they needed - food, a solar panel system to charge their devices, a water collection device and a toilet system consisting of bags and buckets.
"Tāmati and I are old friends, we know each other pretty well," Andrews said.
"We probably know each other a little bit better now. We're still great friends."
When asked whether it was worth it, Andrews said "it does feel like a success".
"Bathurst have been majorly disrupted by this action. Thousands of people have signed a petition to save the Denniston Plateau.
"There were hundreds of people on the street on the 8th of August all around New Zealand at ANZ banks to ask them to withdraw their banking services from Bathurst resources."
In April, Andrews was among nine people arrested and charged with trespassing in a similar protest. Seven of them, including Andrews, had pleaded not guilty.
On Tuesday, Andrews told RNZ she didn't take those consequences lightly.
"I'm expecting to descend the rope and walk out to the Ngakawau carpark, and be arrested by the police."
The vans after the blaze. Photo: Supplied/Climate Liberation Aotearoa
Adam Currie, 350 Aotearoa campaigner, said there had been a number of instances of intimidation and threats towards the protesters and their affiliates online, and from members of the community.
A group of local students on a field trip to the conservation estate - the proposed site for the new mine - on August 14 returned to find the vans they'd arrived in had been set on fire, destroying them along with the students' possessions.
CEO of Bathurst Resources Richard Tacon said they had no idea who had burnt the vans, or why.
"The attempt to connect Bathurst to this is typical of the tactics employed by this group."
On Sunday, Green MP Steve Abel posted a video on Facebook, saying "huge respect" to the protesters.
"Those two activists are doing fantastic work. It's not acceptable that they're being intimidated."
Bathurst Resources has been approached for further comment.
Protesters are malingerers - Minister
Resources minister Shane Jones. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii
Resources minister Shane Jones told reporters at Parliament on Tuesday he thought the protesters were "malingerers".
"I'm disappointed they won't leave that business alone, they're costing the firm a lot of money and I'm disappointed they don't consider the rights of the workers."
Speaking before the protesters began their descent, he urged them to come down.
"They're not going to change the planet or it's current trajectory, so just call it a day."
He said anything that shrunk the cost of energy and increased energy security should be making New Zealanders happy.
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