Pauanui Tairua cycleway making rapid progress

Volunteers armed with recently-granted consents from Thames-Coromandel District Council and Waikato Regional Council have made outstanding progress on the walking and cycling trail that will eventually link Tairua and Pauanui.

In December, locals volunteering under the banner of the Hikuai District Trust have built five more bridges over the ephemeral streams (streams that last for short periods of time and are often dry), have secured the bridges with metal and have now completed 700m of track.

When finished, the track will follow the banks of the scenic Tairua estuary from the end of the existing Coastal Walkway track and link up with public access way from the Tairua Primary School.

At this stage, resource consent has been granted to take the Trail as far as Duck Creek.

With the Tangitarori Canal Bridge and Duck Creek to Picnic Point parts of the trail now completed, summer visitors to the Coromandel can walk these sections and get their first real sense of the finished project.

In addition to members of the community giving their labour to the project, in the last month, petrol company BP has joined the trail sponsors by donating petrol vouchers to the volunteers who need to travel to the Trail construction area.

"The vouchers are most welcome and have been passed to the construction team," says Trail Chairperson Gary Fowler.

Two additional grants were received this month. The Sir John Logan Campbell Residuary Estate has granted $2,897 to assist with pest eradication, and the Waikato branch of Forest and Bird also granted $1,400 for Trail pest eradication.

Trail Chairman Gary Fowler said work on constructing the outer casing of traps was now being undertaken by the Pauanui Menz Shed.

Mr Fowler and the Trail Committee were honoured at the recent Pauanui Sports and Recreation Club's annual Volunteer Awards ceremony. The Hikuai District Trust is the registered trust that was the vehicle that ran the very successful Concert in the Orchard which raised $150,000.00 for the local community.

In addition to the many organisations that have donated to the walkway, Thames-Coromandel District Council has given $56,000 and the Tairua-Pauanui Community Board has given $6,300. Other contributors have included Rayonier, Walking Access Commission, Coastal Walkways, g.a.s. Service Station Pauanui, Forest and Bird Waikato, Sir John Logan Campbell Residuary Estate and BP.

The project began with Ian Hopper building the first stage from the Pauanui Waterways ten years ago, covering 1,600m of mostly board walks over the mangroves.

Read the full story at www.pauanuitairuatrail.org.nz

ENDS

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