West Coast Day 2 - Pike River Mine

This afternoon, Dame Patsy and Sir David visited the Pike River Mine site for a briefing on the progress of the recovery of the mine drift from Pike River Recovery Agency Chief Executive Dave Gawn and Chief of Operations Dinghy Pattinson. The operation's primary purpose is to gather evidence about how the Pike River mine disaster occurred, with the intention to also recover the remains of the 29 miners who died if possible. The operation is complex but has progressed 1632 metres into the drift so far, with an expectation that work will be completed by the end of December. As well as being taken to the mine portal, Dame Patsy met other members of the team and later laid flowers at the Pike River Memorial before joining some of the Pike River family members for afternoon tea.