Caravan Up a Goat Track: Mahau Sound

A one-day job you had to see to believe

This one was a bit different. The owners had just finished a new build on their section in Mahau Sound, an arm of Pelorus Sound in the Marlborough Sounds, and their caravan needed to get up the hill to its new spot. The only way up was an old goat track: steep, narrow, and closed in by tree ferns on both sides. You should have seen it. There was no chance anyone was getting up there, not even with a small tank. So we made a road out of it and dragged the caravan up ourselves.

It is a long way from our Fairhall base, so John drove out first to walk the site and price it properly, then came back with the digger on the truck to get it done.

✆ Call John on 021 0226 1219 for a free quote, or send a message.

How the day went

• Turned a goat track into a track. The old track up the section was cut out wider on very steep ground, enough for the digger and a caravan to get up it safely.
• Dragged the caravan up. Up through the ferns, round the bends and onto a level spot overlooking the water, with no damage at all. The owners now have the best view on the hill from their dinette window.
• Batters. Cut faces around the site trimmed and shaped to a stable, even slope.
• Cut and fill. High spots cut down and low spots filled to shape the ground around the new house.
• Drainage and dish drains. Water caught and steered off the building platform and the track, so run-off goes where it should rather than scouring the new surfaces.
• All in one day. First bucket of dirt in the morning, caravan parked by mid-afternoon, and the digger back on the truck before five.

Working steep, remote Sounds sections

Sounds sections are a different job from a flat Blenheim lot. Access is often a single steep track, the ground can go from clay to rock in a bucket width, and the rain comes hard, so every batter and every drain has to be built for water. We took the 14-tonne Hitachi: the weight and reach to shape batters and push a track wider on a grade, worked carefully around the house, the tank and the bush. Being owner-operated, the person who walks your site and writes the quote is the same person on the machine, so nothing gets lost between pricing and doing. More on access tracks on our gravel driveways and rural tracks page.

The whole lot was done in a day and came in under the original quote. We price from a proper look at the ground, not a guess over the phone, and on a remote site that site visit is worth the drive.

What the owners said

John from DirtPro is super professional and delivers what he promises. Excellent machine operator that turned our vision into reality. John was on time and came in under his original quote. John had no problem travelling the distance to Mahau Sound, firstly to quote and then to do the job! It's nice to see honest, hard-working owner operators that do what they say. We would recommend DirtPro 100%.

Mick Sykes, Mahau Sound

We hired John and his digger to tidy up all our site after completing a new build. He had no problem travelling out to our remote spot in Mahau Sound and also came to inspect the job and give a quote beforehand, which came in way cheaper than quoted! So his honesty was well appreciated. John completed batters, cuts and fills, drainage and dish drains, widened an existing track on very steep ground then towed our caravan up this knarly track with no damage at all! We would not hesitate to recommend John and Dirtpro to anyone 100%.

Deborah Sykes, Google review