If you’ve ever wanted to stand under (yes under) Lake Dunstan, now you can.

Clyde Dam Tours, a new business, begins tours of the Clyde Dam this summer, offering a chance to explore the inner workings of the dam and stand surrounded by concrete under the lake. 

You’ll feel the thrum of the turbines under your feet, hear the roar of the big machinery in your ears and marvel at the sight of the two-metre-thick stainless steel slip joint towering above you.

A group of Clyde locals was given an exclusive preview of the tour recently, with newly minted guides leading them around the massive facility.

It’s the brainchild of Kim Johnstone, and the culmination of three years’ work – interrupted by Covid, of course. 

Kim moved to Clyde four years ago and owns the Clyde Village Store and Café. She was shocked to find that there were no tours of the dam running.

“I approached Boyd Brinsdon, head of hydro generation at Contact Energy, with a proposal and he’s been a real champion of the idea. Contact granting access is an extraordinary gift.”

Part of the arrangement with the power company is that Kim will give a percentage of proceeds from tours back into the community. 

“Contact is happy to support Kim in this endeavour as we consider the Clyde dam to be a bit of a local icon. We have previously run open days for our local community which were a huge – one could say overwhelming – success so we understand the appeal the dam has,” Boyd said.

“What was really important to us was to ensure some of the proceeds from the tours went back to the local community through Clyde based community group(s) so once we ironed out those details it was full steam ahead with Kim’s proposals.”

Kim Johnstone from Clyde Dam Tours with Trevor Lawrence and Boyd Brinsdon from Contact Energy   

The new tour business does not mean the end of access to other groups, however.

“We will be making sure locals still have access to our dam – we will be looking to run our iconic open days for the locals again in the New Year once we are less hamstrung by Covid and a very busy maintenance schedule. Until then, Kim’s tours will be a great taste for out of towners to learn about the history and engineering feats of our very own Clyde Dam,” Boyd said.

Five guides have been employed initially. Neil Heathcote, one of the team, admits the guides “are all a bit of the geeky side” – drawn to the job by a fascination with engineering, geology, and big infrastructure. Just as well, as there’s a wealth of facts and figures to be remembered when talking about the biggest concrete gravity dam in NZ.

Neil, for example, has worked out that the amount of concrete used in the dam could create a three-foot wide and three-inch thick path from Clyde to New York city.

Guide Neil ushers his tour group into the gallery

Tour attendee Jeremy Eade was pleased to be able to experience the inner workings of the dam having studied it many years ago at university: “I was surprised by how much we were shown – I didn’t expect to see the turbines.”

Those who aren’t fascinated by megawatts, kilojoules, transformers and penstocks can simply relish the experience of being up close and personal with the enormous structure and learning new things. 

Did you know, for example, that if there’s a catastrophic power failure in NZ the electricity grid will be restarted from Clyde?

Jeff and Del Gaw from Clyde Cinema had been looking forward to the tour all day and afterwards described it as “interesting and a damn good idea” - pun intended.

Safety is a big emphasis on the tour with visitors reminded regularly it is a work site with trip hazards and cautioned “not to touch anything that’s not a handrail”.

As tour patrons joked nervously about the dam breaking, acting head of hydro generation Trevor Lawrence quipped “Most people who work here live upstream.”

Once inside the dam, however, learning the construction is designed to withstand two metres of movement in the slip joint that might come with a magnitude 7 earthquake and hearing about all the safety plans, everyone felt at ease.

Tours will take place outside the dam’s main workdays, so evenings Monday to Friday and then all day on Saturday and Sunday. 

Tickets can be purchased at the Clyde Village Store and Café or make enquiries online. If you are obsessed with dams, talk to Kim about becoming a guide.

 Putting things in perspective – a tour attendee stands under the wall of concrete